


My Creation

by Olivia_Janae



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies), bechloe - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Red - Freeform, Weird Science inspired, dream state
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-02 14:56:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8671816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Olivia_Janae/pseuds/Olivia_Janae
Summary: Her bags are packed. She’s ready. At long last, the flight to get her out of Shermer, IL and take her to school in Atlanta, GA leaves in the morning. The problem is right now she’s bored…and hungry. And she’s sure she still has a few Twinkies left in her hiding spot at the back of the cupboard.So what if this chair is a bit rickety...She’s only going to be on it for a minute...(Weird Science-ish tribute)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author's notes:
> 
> So I have literally always wanted to do a play on 'Weird Science'. I love that movie and seeing as how I was a big fan as a little lesbian teenager, it was always a fun fantasy. Of course now that I'm doing it I'm finding it to be less of a direct crossover and more of a influenced by kind of thing. There will be a few small things that will be direct tributes but otherwise, it will be different.
> 
> Either way, if you haven't seen Weird Science and you liked the 80's John Hughes comedies (Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink) then you should check it out! If nothing else it's epic eye candy! I mean...Kelly LeBrock...dear lord. Go google search 'Kelly LeBrock door frame' and take a gander (yes a gander) at that. I mean, it's 80's-tastic but still hot as hell.
> 
> :Sigh: My teenage dreams come true.
> 
> Alright. That all being said you don't have to have seen Weird Science to read this!
> 
> FYI: Shermer Illinois is the fake city where all of John Hughes movies are based.
> 
> Gotta give credit where credit is due! Mia totally figured out what to call our spicy titian-haired beauty and looked over this for me. Props to you, Mia!
> 
> Last note: Like everything I write, it's going to start out a little depressing but it should (I hope) pick up into funny. After all, the whole point of Lisa in the movie was to take two unhappy and lonely boys who had hard lives and give them a little help.
> 
> This is not going to have weekly updates like everything else I do does. This is more of a do the next chapter in between other things kind of story.
> 
> Also, while this has been read through, it won't be beta'ed like my usual stuff. My beta is currently stuck doing chapters of 'What You Do To Me' and 'Lagniappe'! She just doesn't have time! So since this is just a little little fic, we're gonna go for it. Hopefully it's not too bad!
> 
> Alright, ya'll, cue Oingo Boingo and here we go!

 

 

“Are you serious right now, Mom? Like, you’ve got to be kidding, right? You’re kidding! That’s what's happening; you’re kidding right now, right?” For a moment Beca almost laughed because this was totally a joke; her mom wasn’t going to just _take the hell off_ on her last night. Yeah, she kind of sucked sometimes but that would be a whole new low.

No way.

“I know. I know, I know.” Her mother sighed into the mirror beside the living room door, “But it’s not as though this is the last time we’ll see each other. I’ll see you in the morning!” Beca knew her face didn’t change. Her eyebrows were still high, her mouth hanging open as she scoffed, “Oh don’t be like that, puppy. Rudy sounded really blue. He needs some company!”

“Right. Company. I’m sure that’s what he needs.” Beca muttered, falling onto the couch with a disbelieving grunt.

“Don’t be dirty, Beca!”

“Oh.” Beca cleared her throat, running her hands over her eyes, “ _My bad_.”

Her mother let out a long sigh, the kind of sigh that had always told her that she was having a bratty moment and that her mother would only deal with it for so much longer before she got snappy. “Just call Conner! I’m sure he’d love to take you to the movie.”

Beca opened her mouth and then closed it again. If her mom hadn’t realized that Conner hadn’t been around for a few _weeks_ now then she wasn’t going to point it out.

“Look, I’ll see you in the morning. We’ll have breakfast before your flight, okay muffin?”

Puppy. Muffin. She always knew exactly what level of fucked up they had reached based on the cutesy-ness of the nickname her mother used on her. Forgot plans with Beca? ‘I’m sorry, cupcake.’ Missed Beca’s birthday? ‘I get so scattered sometimes, panda bear.’ Put her on a plane to visit her dad so she could have a weekend with Rudy? ‘I deserve to have a life too, bumblebee.’”

Beca didn’t respond as she watched her mother draw on yet another layer of lipstick. She considered telling her that _more_ makeup on top of the shit she already had slathered on wouldn’t really mean Rudy was going to like her more than he already did. But fuck it, if she did then her mom might fly off the handle in a fit of melodramatic middle-aged-and-unhappy rage.

Plus, who knew, maybe that wasn’t true anyway. You never knew with guys like Rudy. Maybe if her mom layered on enough Maybelline then Rudy would give up his never ending search for twenty-year-old waitresses to bang and would settle down with her mom.

She just kept her mouth shut, ignoring the heavily makeuped kiss that her mother had sent her and clicked the TV on.

The thing that was really annoying her was that she was surprised by this. She shouldn’t have been. Like, at all.

She watched her mother disappear through the front door, smelling of cheap perfume and hairspray. “It’s cool!” She barked at the closed door, “I’ll just spend my last night in town by myself! No big deal. Whatever.”

Was this really how it had just gone? No, she hadn’t even wanted to see the movie that her mother had been planning on dragging her to. It looked like a total waste of time since she was pretty sure she could tell _who done it_ by the preview alone. _Side note: it was the husband. It’s always the husband._ But at least going to see a movie with her mom would have meant she didn’t have to sit in this house _by herself_ all freaking night. This was literally the last night in her entire fucking life that she would be living under this roof, for fuck sake! And thank fucking god for that too.

She scowled, her arms crossing obstinately as she stared at the TV screen that she already knew she didn’t want to watch. “Just call Conner,” she mimicked in a high voice and then immediately wished that she hadn’t because she felt stupid and childish.

And yeah, maybe she had a right to be for like a nanosecond. But still. That wasn’t really her. She could be bitchy – she could be reserved and distant but she wasn’t childish. Her mom just – ugh, taking off like that made her _feel_ like a kid again, made her feel like that kid waiting for her parents to stop fighting so they could go for pizza…which of course they would forget, each getting out of the car and leaving Beca alone there in the backseat in the driveway.

The last fucking night of living at home and her mom blew it off because Rudy wanted some ‘ _company_ ’.

Foul.

And totally shitty.

God, she so couldn’t wait for the next morning when she would get her happy ass on a plane that would take her all the way from Shermer, Illinois to Atlanta, Georgia. No Mom. No Conner. No Hayden. No Shermer. And she was one step closer to getting her dad to give up this stupid idea that she had to ‘get an education’. Come on, he hadn’t paid attention to her in years. When it came to her he had the attention span of a gnat. She was sure she would be gone after a semester. So, getting on that plane...that meant she was one step closer to L.A.

Far away from her Mom.

Who had just taken off to go be with Rudy.

On her last night in Shermer...ever.

Her jaw set and she blinked a few times as her eyes began to burn. She wasn’t going to get all weepy.  Whatev. It’s not like she cared anyway.

It’s not like she and her mom were close or anything, not since the divorce.

It didn’t matter.

Whatever.

Screw this place, she had better things in mind for herself.

She settled into the couch better, pushing the hurt off with the skill level of a pro and pulled out her phone. She didn’t exactly have anything she wanted to do with it but she clicked open her Tumblr app and began to scroll because what else was she going to do? Then she switched over to Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Vine before heading back to Tumblr. It wasn’t until she had reached all the way down to the posts that she had seen that morning that she began to stir again, finally coming out of her grumpy coma.

Bored. This was boring. She was bored. She flipped through Twitter again because it was a habit before she realized that there was still nothing new to see. With a huff, she dropped her phone back onto the couch, offended that her social media accounts were not more entertaining in her time of need.

She thought longingly of the bags in her bedroom where her laptop and everything music related was packed away and ready for her to get the hell out of dodge the next morning. Had she known that she was going to be sitting around and waiting for a reasonable time to go to bed then she wouldn't have packed them.  …She could just unpack them, her laptop bag at least, and then pack it again. Right? Totally. That didn’t seem like an unreasonable thing to do. She almost got up, almost went upstairs but she let out a groan. She was not allowed to unpack those bags again. No, not one more freaking time. She had packed and unpacked them in anticipation so many times that it was kind of lame. No, it was totally lame. And it would totally be her luck to unpack it all and then forget something so nope, not unpacking. She needed to make sure that she had every single item when she got to Georgia otherwise her setup would not be complete and she would be fucked.

She picked her phone back up and touched the Tumblr app again. She hadn’t even realized she had done it. Tumblr was just an I’m bored habit. She ran out of new things to look at within minutes and let out an annoyed whimper, her head falling back to her lap with a slap. She couldn’t sit there anymore. With a sorrowful moan, she pulled herself to her feet. She didn’t really have anything that she wanted to do, she just knew she was over the couch. So she just wandered through the rooms, looking for something to entertain her.

Finally, because she was out of options, she flopped back onto the couch and stayed there, opening apps she rarely used and getting tired of them almost instantly, her mind drifting until she felt her stomach begin to gurgle.

Dinner; her mom had totally forgotten about dinner. Her head fell back to the couch again, her scowl growing. She was going to have to cook. Shit, she was going to have to _cook_ , which she wasn’t so great at. Actually, that wasn’t exactly true. It just depended on what was being judged, really. She wasn’t so great at the whole making _edible food_ part of it, but if she was supposed to burn water, catch the kitchen on fire, and break things then she was golden; she got an A+.

She chewed her lip, staring over her shoulder at the kitchen as though if she thought at it hard enough then food would magically appear.

There was a Taco Bell like six blocks down Clark. She could walk to that and - who was she kidding? She had no interest in walking to Taco Bell. God, why didn’t Taco Bell deliver? That was a huge market that they were totally missing out on.

She glanced back at the kitchen again, debating. She was pretty sure they hadn’t stocked up on Top Ramen or Cup Noodles this week because of that whole leaving this house forever thing. She was also pretty sure that there were no leftovers since she had been home alone last night as well. She blew out a grumpy breath.

She was going to have to cook.

Damn.

Where was the fire extinguisher?

 

 

It took her another little while more of staring at her phone before she stood, allowing a wail of self-pity to rattle from her. She was going to have to get over it pretty soon so she had better let it out now and deal. She let the annoyance flow through her for another second and then squared her shoulders. Right. Done with that. Adulting now.

But. She was not cooking without music, no way, so at least there was that. She might not be so bored for the rest of the night if she unpacked her headphones at least.

But you’re not allowed to pull anything else out, Beca! Nothing else. She dug her headphones out of her laptop bag, staring longingly at her Mac. She could just take it out...she would remember it, she was sure. It was her freaking _laptop_. She would remember it.

Except she knew herself and she would probably set her alarm, go to bed and then wake up tomorrow four minutes before her flight left, panic, and forget everything from her pants to her sound equipment.

She felt instantly better as she clicked on the music and let her latest mix overwhelm her senses. Her brain clicked into to mix mode and she began to listen for any little imperfection as she resolutely headed toward the kitchen.

Why hadn’t life become like the future always looked in movies and TV? This was the twenty-first century; food should be in pill form by now. Someone was slacking.

 

She just stood for a while, glaring at the room at large.

The first thing she was going to do when she got to Atlanta was buy enough TV dinners and Pop Tarts to last her all of her freshman year.

She opened the fridge and glanced through it but nothing caught her eye so she turned and threw open the cupboards. Automatically she looked up to her super secret hiding spot up behind the vitamins no one ever took and the discarded cans of peas and carrots. Usually that was where she kept all of the good stuff that her mother never wanted her to have - like the aforementioned PopTarts. She was pretty sure the pot had run dry, though. She was pretty sure that Conner had cleaned it out the last time he had come over. You know, before that whole Hayden thing had set their high school long best-friendship on fucking _fire_.

She rolled her eyes and started back to the living room, clicking on another mix; her fingers still itching for her laptop.

She was back ten minutes later, staring at the kitchen again, willing it to reveal it’s secrets.

There had to be something good.

Actually. Now that she thought about it, maybe there were still a few Twinkies in the box up there. Conner didn’t like Twinkies. So maybe? She wasn’t sure but a Twinkie dinner was definitely preferable to anything she was going to cook and the chance of a fire was far less significant.  

A little more enthusiastic about life she grabbed the rickety old chair from the living room, the one that no one ever sat in but was always there, ready for any brave soul who was willing to use it as a step stool; which did happen a lot since, along with shitty parenting, her mother had also given her a serious lack of height.

The chair wobbled a little as she tossed it in front of the cupboard but she barely noticed. She always used this chair to get up there and yeah, it always looked like you were about to play a game with Jigsaw when you got on it, but she had never _actually_ fallen and that was what mattered. She was fully prepared to not judge the chair off of how it looked. Come on, she hated when other people did that to her. She hated it when people assumed what she liked or disliked, cared about or could do based on the fact that she had a few tattoos and piercings – and had a slight problem with resting bitch face. So. Who was she to judge and therefore not use the chair? She smirked a little to herself as she hopped up; letting out a small yelp and grabbing the swinging cupboard door to steady herself when she nearly lost her balance.

See. She was good. She was okay. She totally had this.

The chair let out a loud groan, loud enough that she heard it over her blasting music and she froze, precariously balanced and having to do a little twisting, flailing shimmy in the air to remain upright. Pulling one side of her headphones away, she listened but the ancient chair stayed steady and quiet so she shrugged and reached up, going up onto her tiptoes.

She wasn’t totally sure what happened then. All she knew was that she heard a small and yet so definable _crrrreeeeeeeeekkkkkk_ from the chair and she yelped. Positive that the chair was about to break she pivoted midair, her arms flailing, trying to hurriedly step down - or maybe she had just slipped on an invisible banana peel or something; she didn’t know. All she knew was that she had thrown her weight one way or the other and suddenly the floor was rushing at her. She had a moment to think about just how hard the floor looked before everything went black.

 

* * *

 

“Becs! Oh my god! Beca! Shit! Beca! Wake up!”

She felt soft fingers running over her stomach, rubbing warm circles into it, shaking her, and she let out a groan. She had no idea where she was but whatever she was lying on was so not comfortable. The fingers felt nice though. Beca tried to pull her eyes open and failed; they were far too heavy as though she had been asleep for a week or out with the flu. She let out another groan and tried to roll over. She couldn’t quite make it but those same soft hands gently pushed and she flipped onto her stomach, thankful for the cool under her cheek.

Was she on the floor right now? The hell?

“Why am I on the floor?” One eye blearily cracked open and then the other and settled on, “ _What the shit?_ ” She registered two things in very quick succession; one being that the woman perched over her and straddling her hips was hot, startlingly hot; and two, she had no idea who the hell she was. She shoved backward, away from the stranger and jumped to her feet, wobbling and trying to find her center of gravity again. The world swam and, oh Jesus, for a moment she thought she was going to go back down. She hung precariously off of the counter, pressing her fingers into her eyes. “Fuck. Who the fuck are you? Why the fuck - why the fuck are you in my kitchen?”

The woman, who she had just shoved off of her, had landed with a yelp and a light grunt on her butt. Now she sat back, a devilish twinkle in her shockingly blue eyes, “Hi!” She said in a breathy voice, “You’re okay! Well, you look okay. Are you okay?”

Beca didn’t like it. She didn’t like that look at all.

There was a woman, a totally random fucking woman in her house! In her kitchen, where she was totally alone! Crap! Glancing around she grabbed the first thing she could, whipping it out in front of her and brandishing the whisk like a sword. “Dude! Who _are_ you?” She shook the whisk menacingly at the woman. She wasn't sure what she could really do with a whisk but she could get inventive if she needed to. She let out a menacing growl and flicked it a few times, just to make her unspoken point. Watch out lady, this thing would _suck_ if it got caught in your hair! You might even have to cut it out! Yeeeeah, watch it. Don’t want to fuck up that stupid-gorgeous hair of yours!

The woman’s large eyes slowly, carefully and amusedly rolled to the whisk being pointed at her and then back to Beca, her eyebrows rising.

To Beca’s annoyance, she felt herself blush slightly. “I uh - _hey!_ What are you - get back down there!” Beca’s grip tightened on the kitchen tool as the woman rose, her free hand slapping around on the counter behind her trying to find something a little more intimidating. When she only came up with a hot pad she gave up and settled on a death glare.

The woman just stood there, hands on her hips, looking like she was biting back a laugh, “You just want me on my knees, don’t you Becs?”

Beca’s mouth opened but instead of speaking she just spluttered. Ooookay, crazy lady, whatever that means! The woman’s lightly pinked lips opened and Beca, still a little unsteady bumped into the counter behind her, all but scooting up it when the stranger took a step toward her, “Back up! Whoa! Back up, lady!”

“Beca. What are you going to do with a _whisk?_ ”

She frowned, feeling slightly ineffectual but like hell she was going to let anyone know that! “You don’t know!” She cried sharply, boldly shoving her chin forward in a pathetic attempt to punk the stranger, “Maybe I have some mad whisk skills that you don’t know about! Or – Or-” She wasn’t doing this whole intimidating-don’t-fuck-with-me thing very well. Maybe she should just relax and let her born-with-it bitch face do the talking for her. Only she couldn’t, far too tense as she watched the woman for any movement.

The woman flipped her vibrantly red hair over her shoulder and smirked as though Beca had just said a good and slightly inappropriate joke.

Weren’t crazy people who wandered into your house supposed to be dirty - or smelly - or - from what she could see this chic wasn’t - and she smelled like flowers and - “ _Dude!_ ” Beca suddenly shouted; the whisk nearly flying from her hand in shock, “Where are your _clothes?_ ” So she might not be dirty or smelly but naked was definitely on the crazy checklist, it was definitely a warning sign. She felt her cheeks going suddenly red hot. How had she not realized that this woman, whoever the hell, was standing there in just her underwear? In very skimpy underwear! In very skimpy, really _hot_ underwear! In very skimpy, really hot, black and white spotted lacy underwear that made Beca’s skin itch just looking at it.

This person must be crazy.

….Or maybe Beca was crazy…

This chic must have wandered in off the street…and taken off her clothes…and she must be crazy. Yup. Totally made sense.

“Beca -”

Beca had all but leapt up into the counter, spinning the whisk in the air at her as her legs shot straight out, ready to defend her as best they could, “Whoa! Stay back! Stay - you just stay over there!”

The woman stopped, her eyes rolling a little and her hands going back onto her hips. She didn’t say anything but her head tilted to the side as though waiting for Beca to decide what she would be doing next.

Beca frowned because in truth - when it came to this little standoff she was the one in the corner...with a whisk… _also_ , she weighed about 103 pounds - she wasn’t going to get very far in this face off. “Where are your clothes?” Beca asked the ceiling because she was having a hard time focusing on anything else. Cut her some slack, she was eighteen and the farthest she had gotten with a girl was a kiss. She had literally never seen one this up close and personal with this little on. It was distracting. She was trying not to look at her smooth thighs or the way her belly button was a perfect little circle. She just wasn’t going to look at her at all. That was the way to play this. Crap, only, the thing was that she _had_ to look at her because she was a crazy woman in her kitchen and when she did that then her eyes moved to her thighs, her hips and -

Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look. She scrunched her eyes in the effort of focusing, don’t look, don’t look, _damn it!_ She was looking. Okay, don’t look, don’t look. She tried hard to focus in the general area of her face but slowly, as though they had weights on them her eyes began to drop.

Oh my god, boobs were everything she had hoped they would be. Well, boobs that weren’t her own. You know, _other_ girl boobs. She wished, for a second, that she could, you know _see_ –

She wasn’t sure how long she had been staring at the swells of warm creamy skin just above the lacy bra when she heard the woman give a small, pointed throat clear.

“Whaa-” she jumped, her hands slapping over her eyes, “Sorry. I’m sorry. My bad.”

“Beca, you don’t have to,”

She let out a shout and thrust the whisk again as she jumped, scooting so far up the counter that she was able to bring her legs up too. Curled in a ball in the corner. Great job, Beca. “Why are you in my house?”

And the woman was just standing there, bold as day as though she wasn’t standing mostly naked in a stranger's house.

Crazy.

Suddenly the redheaded stranger couldn’t handle it anymore. She let out a laugh, “I don’t know, Becs, where _are_ my clothes?”

“Uuuuh, what?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking _you_ where my clothes are? You’re the one that made me this way. Though,” the woman looked down at the lace, “I’m not complaining. And clearly, neither are you!” She gave a large smile and a wink.

Beca frowned, the whisk in her hand wilting a bit, “Um, run that by me again?”

She gave a little huff, a few strands of her hair rising and falling, “How does your head feel?” Worry crashed across her face again as she remembered, “Oh god, does it hurt? Are you okay? You were harder to wake up than I expected.”

Beca let out a yelp and one of her legs went back out into the air to stop random-lady-from-crazyville in her tracks. When it seemed as though she was going to stay over there, she frowned. “Um? No? Why would it? What?”

Looking relieved the woman sighed, “It will. When you wake up I mean.”

“Oh. So crazy. You are crazy then. Awesome. Good to know.”

To her surprise all she got back was another laugh and it was so sweet, so warm that Beca felt her insides go all gooey.

What the hell was wrong with her?

Of course I would be the one to think the crazy lady is hot. Just when I think I can’t sink any lower!

“Just out of, you know, curiosity, how long have you been crazy, maybe? And backup question, how crazy are you? ‘Cuz, like, I’m not sure if I should expect, I don’t know, you to run at me suddenly or -”

“I’m not crazy, Beca!”

Beca’s thoughtful frown grew, “I guess you couldn't exactly tell me if you were crazy,” she mumbled more to herself than to the woman.

At this though the woman let out another titter of laughter, “I’m _not_ crazy! And neither are you. You just hit your head.”

“Right. Uh, totally, okay, sure.” Her free hand reached for her back pocket, searching out her phone. Cops. Cops would be good. Or like - was there a number you could call that would bring that special van you saw in old cartoons? Like, did 1-800-crazy-van exist?

Only, shit, her phone wasn’t in her pocket. It was - she let her eyes move around the room, snapping to the floor, the woman’s stomach, the counter, the woman’s thigh, across the room, the woman’s breast. Finally she saw her phone a few feet away across the floor, still attached to her headphones. They must have gone flying when she - “Wait.”

A grin bloomed on the stranger's lips as Beca searched her brain. She had fallen. That’s right, she had fallen off the chair and - she let out a yelp and brandished the whisk as the woman took another step forward, “Dude! Can you freaking stay put?! Over there! Stay! Over! There!”

Openly amused the woman's hands closed softly on her wrist, pulling the whisk away.

“Your hands are so warm,” Beca mumbled and then immediately wondered why the fuck she had just said that.

The woman just smiled and put the whisk down on the counter beside them. Stiff as a board, not wanting to make any sudden movements, Beca only watched herself be pulled off the counter and the soft, small hands of the woman smooth her shirt against her stomach. “You hit your head.”

“I hit my head.” Beca parroted back, a little dizzy.

“That’s right. You hit your head.” The woman frowned, concern back on her face.

“So, uh okay, but I hate to break it to you but my head feels fine. So...”

“I know.” At this close range Beca could see the way her little nose scrunch accentuated her laugh lines and made her eyes twinkle; sending the word ‘adorable’ through Beca’s addled brain, “But it won’t when you wake up. I guess that’s the price for this time though, right?”

“Time?”

“Yup,” the redhead chirruped, a grin on her face again, “this time that we get to have together.”

“Riiiiight.” Beca straightened fully, realizing too late that doing that brought her closer to randomcrazylady and her random and clearly crazy face. “I’m just gonna-” she tried to step around her to grab her phone but the woman didn’t move and Beca wasn’t sure she was willing to push by her.

“You fell, Becs.” She gave a little shrug, “But you’re going to be alright, I promise. You’re just a little - out of it right now.”

“Uh-huh.” She blinked a few times, realizing something. “How do you know my name?”

“Of course I know your name, silly, I told you. _You made me_.”

And that was enough crazy lady talk for the day. “Look,” Beca grunted, still trying to find a way to get around this random woman, “Even if that were true, I don’t have time for that, okay? I don’t have time to have ‘made’ you, or whatever and I don’t have time for a head injury. I have a flight in the morning and I can't miss it. ‘Kay?” She gave a small tongue click, her eye dropping into a sarcastic wink as she tried to scoot again. She pushed, her arm brushing the woman’s and she recoiled back from the soft skin, slamming hard into the counter again. “Ow.” She glanced at the woman and wondered if she was doing this on purpose. Wait. Was she getting closer? Was she imagining that she was getting closer? Nope. She let out a small laugh and tried to take a step back but there was nowhere to go, she was trapped back in the corner as the woman took another small step toward her.

“Not anymore, Becs. I mean, you will,” she shook her head laughing, “of course you will when you wake up but for now,” she reached forward and gently ran a finger across the scoop neckline of Beca’s tank.

The touch turned Beca’s brain to mush as well as freaked her the hell out, making her want to claw her way past her and run for it while also wanting to purr.

She let out a small awkward laugh, pressing herself a little further into the corner, “That’s nice,” she muttered. She didn’t like the way that this woman was smiling. She didn’t like the way her eyes were glittering.

“Stop looking so nervous, Becs. We,” The woman ran her finger over her shoulder, sliding it under a strap, lifting it and letting it fall with a snap, making Beca jump and drop the whisk, “are going to have _so_ much fun together.”

 

* * *

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Through recent discussions I’ve realized that apparently I am old or something because no one has seen Weird Science in this fandom! So these are the things you need to know about the movie and how they relate to this fic…as well as just as few...things.
> 
> 1) In the movie the boys created a woman on their computer.
> 
> 2) Lisa (the creation) has magic that weirdly shows up as blue lightning. Don’t ask me why.
> 
> 3) She’s there to make the guys life better, set them on the right path and pretty much awaken their sexuality in a goofy 80’s comedy kind of way. (Whhat’s h’appenen, hot stuffs?)
> 
> 4) If a scene in this seems weird...the odds are it’s a scene taken and adapted from the movie (cough cough for example the one in this chapter)
> 
> 5) The Chloe vs Red thing will be explained...eventually but I would love to hear your thoughts and theories in the meantime!
> 
> 6) Suspend disbelief for a while. Just...go with it. (This is me giving you a wink)

 

**Chapter Two:**

Beca couldn’t help but to wonder if maybe she had things wrong and in reality _she_ was the freaking crazy one. That made sense. She couldn’t think of any other reason why she would be digging through her nearly empty drawers for _some_ type of clothing for the random crazy lady who had just showed up in her kitchen literally out of nowhere. A little nervous to have her back to the stranger, she glanced over again but the vibrant redhead was just sitting on her bed innocently enough, smiling up at her with her hands folded in her lap as though she was just so freaking excited to be there. Whatever crazy lady world this chic was living in, Beca kind of wished she could join her. It seemed like a nice place full of puppies and ice cream instead of the possible incarceration that would probably be coming if Beca decided to call the cops.

Beca’s eyebrows pulled together again and she turned away, just as confused. She had no idea what to do here but she was pretty sure that even if she was going to call the cops on her intruder then she needed to at least put some clothes on this lady because there was no way for this not to look weird.

What it looked like exactly she didn't know, but not good was the general idea.

God, she really should be running in the opposite direction right now, she should be avoiding the hell out of her and really, _really_ though, she should call the cops. Like now, she needed to call the cops now.

But instead of reaching for her phone she sent the woman another nervous glance, her frown deepening as she just got another grin from her again. Her open cheeriness was unsettling for some reason. Maybe it just played too far into the she’s-probably-crazy thing. “Right.” _Okaaaaay._ “Um, here. Sorry it’s kind of old and gross but um, everything I wanted to keep is packed and-”

She took the clothes from Beca, her smile fading a little.

“I know, they aren’t so cute or anything but-” Beca jumped, tripping over nothing in her effort to put some space between herself and the woman. All the intruder did though was stand and hold the holey shirt up to herself. Her pink lips frowned, grimacing as she looked derisively back at Beca, who began to squirm.

“Look, it’s all I have, okay?” Beca mumbled, twitching in place as she ran her hand over the back of her neck. Why was she embarrassed? She could feel her cheeks beginning to blaze. She looked back up and away as soon as she realized that she was still being watched, “I have a flight in the morning so I can’t unpack, like at all so-”

The woman's nose wrinkled a bit and she let out a long sigh, “Beca, I _keep_ telling you.” She grasped her shoulders as though about to shake her, making Beca cower, “We have plenty of time now! You won’t have a flight until you wake up!” And with that she strolled over to the largest bag and unzipped it.

“No! Duude!” Panic gripped Beca’s chest, “Shit! Are you fucking kidding me right now?”

But the woman was taking absolutely no notice of her, singing lightly to herself as she pulled shirts, pajamas, jackets, Tardis patterned underwear, and everything else from the duffle.

“Fuuuuck,” Beca wailed and sat with a thump on the floor. That bag had taken fucking forever! She mumbled to herself as she watched the woman’s bright face, watched her lift a shirt, examine it, decide she didn’t like it and literally toss it over her shoulder. Duuuuude, you’ve got to be - this couldn’t be happe - fuuuuck! Her hands were in her hair, watching and yet totally unable to stop the beautiful force that was tearing through her hard work as well as her clean bedroom.

“What’s wrong, Becs?” The woman asked, her radiant smile flashing in her direction.

“What’s -” but Beca stopped, she wasn’t even going to try to explain herself to the crazy lady.

She should stop her, she knew that.

She so had to stop her - like now - but…

How the fuck could she?

Her nose was so cute as she examined each article of clothing, shook her head a little and tossed it. She was _so_ cute - were crazy ladies who walked into your house allowed to be this cute - let alone, Jesus - she let her eyes drift down the woman’s toned stomach - she was so hot. She wasn’t even sure she had ever met someone who was that hot before. Like - she was so hot it was crippling.

This was clearly a thing for her. That was how Beca had met Hayden, after all. She had been standing in line at Hotdog On A Stick in the mall, on break from her shift at the Starbucks kiosk. She had exactly ten minutes left to get her food and wolf it down and yet when the gorgeous blonde new girl had walked up and cut in front of her she had been so transfixed by her long lashes and pouty lips that she hadn’t said _anything_ about it.

_HOW WERE YOU SUPPOSED TO USE YOUR BRAIN COGNITIVELY FOR ANY LEGITIMATE THING BESIDES NOT WALKING INTO WALLS WHEN THEY WERE THAT PRETTY AND YOU WERE STILL A VIRGIN?_

….She had been three minutes late back to work.

Oh my god, she internally groaned when she realized _that_ was why she was just sitting there letting this crazy chic go through her shit. She was too hot to stop. Was that a thing? Was she really doing that? Was she really saying fuck it, she’s so hot that I’m just going to let her do whatever the fuck she wanted and distroy whatever because she’s hot? Was she that pathetic? That was so laaaaaamme! Her body crumpled with the thought and she fell over painfully into the dresser, smacking her forehead. OW! But really?! She kind of deserved that pain. That was literally the lamest thing she had ever heard. No! She pushed herself up, about to stand, about to stop her when the redhead picked up another pair of jeans, held them up to herself and then discarded them.

Okay and those were her favorite jeans.

Why weren’t they good enough for random crazy ladies?

They were torn in all the right places and she had owned them for so long that they were all soft and perfectly broken in. And they made her butt look great.

Those were _good_ jeans.

This was war.

She grabbed the top of the dresser, ready to hoist herself up and march over to her phone. She was calling the fucking cops. Enough of this.

The woman threw her another smile, the little song she was singing to herself tripping as she looked at Beca and giggled - and Beca sat back down.

So…fuck it.

She would just have to repack everything.

“Everything you own, Beca, is either a tee shirt, tank top, or jeans. Don’t you have anything else that...” The redhead picked up her Cradle of Filth shirt and held it up to her torso.

Beca scowled, “Don't like that? No? Oh, I guess not,” she mumbled as that too went flying. “Wait.”

The woman paused, her bright eyes flashing to her in question.

“Tell me, how do you know my name again? ‘Cuz I’m still having trouble, you know, wrapping my head around…around that one.” To be honest it was weirding her out a little every single time she called her Beca. That was the only thing she didn’t get. Well, that and she did feel like she _almost_ remembered falling...almost.

The woman let out a bell-like laugh, “You-”

“Right, I _made_ you,” she cut her off.

Yeah, because that explained everything.

“Uh, ‘kay. So um, then, what’s _your_ name?”

This time the woman stopped, a shirt falling out of her hand as she looked somewhat startled. As quickly as the shock had come, it also left and she smirked, “I don’t know. What do you want it to be?”

Beca let out a dry laugh, shaking her head, “Okay, that’s cute…and everything, but really though, what’s your name?”

“I don’t know, Becs, I don’t think I ever come with one. That’s kind of your job.” She sent her a wink that made Beca’s knees start to shake. What the shit was up with her and her responses right now?

“Right. Because I made you, right?”

“Exactly.” She gave a little nod and then let out a huff, “Ugh, Beca! This is all terrible! None of it looks even a little bit like me or anything I would want to wear...ever!” Her face set and suddenly Beca yelped, flinging herself back into the wall so hard that she lost her breath. In a crackle of blue electric lightning, the woman’s frankly mouthwatering black lace panties were gone, covered by a small knee-length floral print dress and wedge sandals.

“THE FUCK JUST - THE FUCKING FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!” Beca shouted, her hands out as though she was going to stop whatever the fuck that had just been from happening again, “THE FUCK DID I JUST SEE? THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO?” Her mind was racing as the redhead looked back at her smugly. That had just happened. She was pretty sure that had just happened! What the fuck, what the fuck, that was - that didn’t - she had just seen - what was that? Magic? The fuck? “WHAT THE HOLY FUCK?”

The woman laughed, running her hands over her suddenly styled hair, “Calm down Beca, I told you -”

“That I made you.” Beca knew her head was nodding and there was no reason for it. “That I hit my head.” She was in a coma. That’s what it was. She was in a coma and this was some weird coma dream and oh shit … _maybe_ she was dead! She had died, hadn’t she? She was dead. She was totally fucking dead! This was her brain trying to tell her that she was fucking dead. “Oh god,” she moaned, “I’m dead, aren’t I?”

“What?” The redhead looked honestly alarmed, “No! Why would you think that? You’re not dead! You just hit your head.”

“Right.” She needed to sit down. She really needed to sit down. She needed to - wait, she _was_ sitting. ‘Kay, she needed to stand up then. She pulled herself up by the dresser top, unsteady on her feet, “Right, sure, that totally makes sense.” Except she had just watched this woman _magic_ clothes from literally out of nowhere. She tried to take a deep breath but instead she choked. “Okay so -” she said in a very slow voice, doing her best to speak softly and rationally, “Explain this to me again. Because I’m not getting it. I _made_ you? Like _made_ you? How did I do that…exactly?”

“You can say it all sarcastically like that Beca but it’s still going to be true.” The woman chirruped, taking a seat on her bed, her long heeled leg tossing itself over her other in a way that drew Beca’s unwilling eyes. “You imagined me here.”

“Because you’re my fantasy,” her words were blunt, not bothering to hide her skepticism.

“That’s right.”

“But I’m not gay.” She was so used to saying it at this point that the words had just flown from her mouth like a reflex.

There was silence for a second and it was only then that Beca realized she had been staring at the woman’s crossed legs. She jumped like she had just been stung, her skin burning as she flushed. “Yes, you are.”

Beca opened her mouth, instantly angry. Like fuck she was! She could be fucking anything! She was _sick_ of people telling her what she was! She was, “Yeah. Yeah, I am.” She breathed, her eyes flicking back to the woman's ankle and then back up. Okay, she hadn’t meant to say that. “So um. But I’m not really here?”

“Nope.”

“‘Kay.” She blinked a few times. Maybe she _was_ the crazy one. How did you know if you were crazy? Was there an online quiz somewhere she could take that would tell her? Because crazy was suddenly starting to make sense. She was totally crazy. Duh, Beca, that’s what it is. You snapped. You totally snapped. You couldn’t handle the pressures of leaving the nest or of the future and now your brain is all addled and that’s it. You’ve gone off the deep end. Fuck it. “‘Kay.” She said very slowly, “Okay. So then - what the fuck am I supposed to do with you exactly?”

The redhead’s smile started out slowly but as Beca watched, her mouth hanging open, the smile grew into an all-out dazzling grin, “ _Whatever you want_.”

 

* * *

 

This was the stuff of dreams.

Literally the stuff of dreams and you’re missing it!

Just _move!_ Come on! Just reach out your hand! Come. On. Becs. You’re. So. Lame.

Go!

Her finger twitched but in that moment the redhead let out a sigh and Beca froze like a rabbit in the sights of a snake.

Fuck!

Okay.

But like...

Just take a deep breath.

Good.

And now count to three.

And then make your arm move.

One.

Two.

Three.

DAMN IT!

God, why are you such a loser?

She’s right there.

Right fucking there.

With you.

And wet.

She’s so, so wet.

All you have to do is reach forward and -

_Oh come on, you pussy!_

Go!

Her hand released of its clenched spot beside her thigh and began to move.

The redhead turned, looking delighted, and Beca’s hand snapped back so fast that it was as if it had never moved at all.

Mentally she let out a loud curse.

“We really do need to give me a name, you know.”

Beca made a noncommittal sound, her eyes glued to her face so she couldn’t be caught looking. She was saying something...about a name...she was talking about naming her...right? Think, think, think. OR! Coooome on. Just step forward. Just go. Women liked that, right? Be bold. Pretend you have more freaking confidence than you do and like you’re not scared shitless. Ready? One. Two. A few droplets splashed across her face and she lost her train of thought, flinching like she had just heard a gunshot. A droplet rolled slowly down her lip and automatically her tongue flicked out to catch it, her eyes blinking too often and too fast.

She was dizzy.

“I mean, you have to call me something.”

“Uh-huh.” Beca nodded a few times, not really hearing what she was saying. She was trying. She really was. But come _on,_ dude, she was only human!

“Otherwise things could get really confusing.”

“Right.” Come on, Becs, this is literally the thing you always fantasize about. This is your _thing!_

The redhead gave her a mischievous grin and touched her tattooed shoulder - making Beca’s heart jump into her throat. “You okay?”

“What? Yeah, obvs. Totally fine.”

Giving her an open once over the woman laughed and turned, her fingers running through her hair.

Beca’s eyes had a mind of their own. She was trying to be respectful, she really was but every time those electric blues weren’t on hers - Beca’s were devouring every inch of exposed skin.

Come on, you’re supposed to be touching her. There’s no way she didn’t mean that when _she_  pulled _you_ in here. That is kind of the point of this.

Come on!  Come on!

She flinched as another splash hit her in the face and the woman let out a giggle.

“Ooops.” She smirked over her shoulder, “Sorry.”

Come on. She’s almost done. Just go! Go, go, go, go! This is literally everything you have ever fantasized about. Ever. Right here. In front of you. Go! Get involved! You’re supposed to be involved in this, I’m pretty freaking sure. She’s probably sitting there waiting for you. She’s probably disappointed.

You’re blowing your chance!

The redhead clicked off the water so suddenly that Beca jumped, her shoes squelching wetly. “I’m pretty sure that was supposed to go differently.”

“Uuuuh,” Beca just said a bit dumbly.

“That's okay. We have time.”

The shower door opened and she reached for a towel, wrapping it around her head.

Beca couldn’t help it, her eyes were glued to the woman's bare hips as she stretched, watching the beads of water roll down her pelvis.

“What about Red?”

“What?” Beca jumped, “Red what? I don’t, I uh, what?”

“What about Red? You can call me Red! Like, a nickname.”

“Uh, sure. Red.” Beca was nodding again.

“Awes.”

Beca just stood there, listening to Red hum as she dried herself and made a hairdryer appear from thin air. She just stared, frozen as the other woman moved around Beca’s bathroom, doing her hair, her makeup and pulling the dress back on.

“Well? Are you coming?”

“What?” Beca yelped, pulled back to herself.

“Are you coming?” Red asked, her eyes glowing with mirth, “You have to change before we go.”

“Um, what?” Beca looked down at her clothes, only just realizing that her tank, her jeans and her Chucks were completely soaked through, dripping onto the shower floor. “Wait.” She had gotten in, she knew she had done it but - panicked she looked back up into Red’s eyes too dazed to even be fully embarrassed. She had asked - and so Beca had told Red about her fantasy, about her _dream_ of showering with a woman - of the intimacies she had always imagined under shared water - and Red had, without any hesitation, all but dragged her into the bathroom but - she had gotten in - like this? “Dude, why didn’t you _say_ anything?”

“I just thought it was a fashion choice.” Red gave a shrug.

Beca shifted awkwardly and felt the water in her socks squish between her toes.

Oh.

My.

_God!_

She closed her eyes, wanting for just a moment to die. Pleeease, let me open my eyes and still be standing outside of the shower, watching this freaking woman getting undressed.

“Hey.”

Her eyes snapped right back open, feeling static all over her wet body as she realized that Red was close again - very close. “Uh, hi.”

“Hi.” The ginger beauty blinked and smiled, “You know Beca, if we’re going to have any fun together, you better learn to loosen up.”

 

* * *

 

Changed into dry clothes, dignity almost found Beca followed Red downstairs, nervous that she was still refusing to tell her where the fuck they were going.

“I don’t have a car, you know,” Beca said just as Red grabbed the doorknob.

She paused, her blue eyes drilling into Beca for a moment as she thought, “You don’t, huh?”

“Nope!” She had never bothered since she had known she was going to go to school out of state. Plus, all cash from her job had gone instead to a nice computer and soundproofing the basement. She just used her mom’s car if she ever needed one.

Red’s eyes closed, her nose scrunching for a moment before she gave a nod, “Okay! Problem solved!” And she threw open the door.

Beca’s jaw dropped, “Holy shiz.”

Parked out front, directly across from the open door was a cherry red, mint, 65 Mustang.

“You like it?” Red asked, a touch of nerves in her voice. “Because I can change it.”

“No,no.” Beca said, her voice high and off pitch, “It’s good. It’s uh, it’s a good car.”

Red’s smile was instant, “Awesomesauce. Let’s go!”

Beca slid into the white leather interior with a small moan. It smelled like leather and _girl_ in there and the plush cherries hanging from the rearview mirror were adorable and...wow. “So like,” but her words stopped...entirely...there were no more left in her.

“Safety first, Becs.”

She heard the whisper but she had no idea what it meant. All that she knew was suddenly her intruder was there, so close that the red waves of her hair brushed Beca’s cheek. Beca’s breath hitched and then pushed from her all at once, making her chest deflate. She could see little flecks of silver in her eyes, she could see the midnight limbal ring as her eyes flicked between Beca’s. In her own lap her hands closed into fists, her toes clenched as she felt Red’s chest graze her own, as she watched a small grin build on the lips a breath from hers, as Red wet her lips, making them glisten slightly.

Beca let out a little hiccup of sound.

“You have to buckle in,” Red breathed and Beca felt it brush across her lips.

Beca heard a small click and registered that she had been reaching for the seatbelt for her.

“Are you ready?”

She tried to take a deep breath but it caught. She nodded. She had no idea what she was agreeing to, but whatever the hell it was she was so fucking ready.

“Okay.” With a lingering look at Beca’s lips, Red sat back, breaking the spell.

Beca sagged, disappointed and maybe just a drop relieved.

“Let’s go!”

 

* * *

 

“This? This is the big secret? _The mall?_ ” Shermer only had one mall and it wasn’t even a good mall! It was a crappy outdoor mall that was mostly chains such as Claire’s and REI.

“Hey,” Red laughed as she closed the car door behind herself, “ _I_ never said it was a big secret. That was all you, lady!”

“Uh huh.”

“What? We both need dinner!”

“Uh huh.”

“Oh I’m sorry, did you not want to eat? I remember someone here sacrificing their safety for a Twinkie.”

“How did you - fucking creeeepy, dude!”

Red just shrugged, “You coming?”

But Beca hadn’t actually moved from beside the car door.

The thing was - this was where all the teenagers hung out. There was nowhere else to go! They all threw their cash in together and ordered a Jamba Juice or a cookie from Mrs. Fields. Most people in Shermer pretty much stayed in Shermer...which meant that the odds were her entire graduating class was probably here, doing the same thing they had done every evening all of high school. “I uh -”

Red’s head whipped around suddenly like she had been called, her brow furrowing as she looked into the crowd of teens across the street surrounding the sitting area. For a moment she looked so honestly angry that Beca stepped forward, alarmed.

“You okay?”

“Yup!” Red’s smile clicked on so fast that it was like a light switch being clicked into the ‘on’ position.

“Uh - oohokay.”

“Beca, we can go somewhere-”

“No!” Beca decided. Fuck it. The rumors had already been spread. She might as well have fun with her… _creation_.

“Good. Come on.” Red gave her a little shove, “Move it!”

“Yes ma’am! Geez!”

She had assumed that they would head to the pizza place or maybe the wing place but as Red started to push her toward the sushi restaurant Beca rebelled, twisting around so the woman could no longer push her by the small of the back, “No! No way!”

“What’s wrong, Becs?” She asked in a teasing voice.

“Dude, no!” She tried to scramble away but Red caught her around the waist, using their momentum to swing her back around. “Dude, it’s raw fish!”

“But it’s sooooo gooooood!” Red moaned.

“How would you know?” She cried, ducking under her arm, elated by the sudden flirty turn of events and yelping when she was caught by the back of the belt,  “You - were made - like an hour - ago.” She huffed, trying to swing free.

“So! I still know what’s good!”

“Lemmego!” Beca cried and when that didn’t work she reached over and gave Red a quick jab in the side. Red sprang back, letting out a very unladylike squawk. “What was _that?_ ”

Red’s lips pursed, her eyes shining, “Nothing. I just happen to be VERY _TICKLISH!_ ” She cried, the last bit of her sentence turning into a scream as Beca turned the tables tickling her and walking her toward the pizza place. “You’re cheating! You’re cheating!”

“A little, yeah,” but there was no way Beca was going to do anything that would make Red stop laughing like that, or make her stop reaching for her hands and holding them – not really trying to push them away – just kind of…holding them...against her side.

A wandering thought passed through her and for a second she grinned to herself: _Maybe this was what dating was supposed to feel like._

Not that they were dating or anything like that but like – she stopped herself before her rant could really get going, enjoying the added pressure Red was suddenly giving their hands.

Could you date a figment of your imagination? That seemed very 'Lars and the Real Girl' to her...

Except, she wasn't really a  _figment_ was she? No, she could see people all around them looking at Red, turning toward the screaming sounds of their roughhousing and there were plenty of men...and a few women she was intrigued to see... openly checking the woman out. So, maybe not a figment. 

“You can’t win, Becs! You can’t!” Red cried, grinning over her shoulder.

“I don’t know. It looks like I really can! I’m a lot less ticklish than you are.”

Beca almost won. She _had_ won! She pulled open the door to the pizza place, using her whole body to push Red inside and walked...into the sushi place. “How did-” she stared around the lobby, shocked.

“I win!” Red beamed.

“Table for two?”

“Yup!”

“Wha-” Beca turned and stared, open mouthed, at the pizza place all the way across the courtyard. “Dude!”

“Come on, Becs!” Red grinned, giving her a long, slow wink.

Shaking her head Beca followed, not sure if this dream, hallucination thing was proof about the crazy theory or not. “I’m not eating any raw fish.”

“How do you know you won’t like it if you don’t try it, Becs?” Red asked, her menu half hiding her face and there was such a lascivious look in her eyes that Beca had to look away, staring in the opposite direction as her cheeks cooled. “I’ll have you know that by the end of this school year you will have developed quite a taste for sushi.”

“What?” Beca gaped, “Like - you know that, know that or are just being funny.”

Red shrugged, “Try the dragon roll. It’s your favorite.”

Thoroughly weirded out and sure that she was being messed with...she did...and it was okay.

Well, the bits of it that she was getting was okay. She scowled as once again the chopsticks buckled in on themselves and the sushi roll fell back to her plate with a thunk, splattering soy sauce across the tablecloth. Across from her there was a small hissing noise as Red tried to hold back her laughter and failed. “Shuuuut upppp!” Beca whined, thoroughly embarrassed. “These are unreasonably hard. Like. They are sticks. How the fuck am I supposed to eat with _sticks_?”

“You just have to relax your hand!” Red said with a laugh and a shake of her head, “Like this,” she reached over and molded Beca’s fingers into the proper shape.

See but that was the problem! Red needed to stop like...touching her. She couldn’t think!

She carefully picked up another roll, concentrating hard but just as she was about to plop it victoriously into her mouth Red let out a happy cheer and sent her a wink - and the roll dropped into her lap.

“Damn it!”

“Ooh!” Hands clamped over Red’s mouth, “That was my fault, wasn’t it?”

“Uh yeah!” Beca cried, “Stop doing -” cute things? Could she say stop doing cute things? No. Definitely not. “That.” She finally finished and then took a drink of water to hide her face. She just - she had to stop smiling at her like that. It was distracting. Everything about her was distracting.

She tried again, working her hand as best she could, pinching it and catching it perfectly. She had this. She could do it, she could - the chopsticks twisted under the pressure her fingers were giving them and the sushi roll flew over her shoulder.

“Beca,” Red said very seriously, “I’m worried that you’re still going to be hungry after this meal.”

Beca’s head fell into her hands, “Oh my god, shut up!” She glanced up and found Red smiling at her, the look on her face unreadable.

“Okay, so it was okay,” Beca admitted as they left a bit later. Once she had given up and used a fork the meal had been much easier to eat.

“Only okay, huh?” Red asked, playfully bumping shoulders with her.

“Yeah. Okay. I mean, the fact that it’s your favorite tells me that you’re crazy,” Red gasped and shoved her a little making Beca laugh, “or maybe it’s just proof that you’re an alien or something.”

Red rolled her eyes.

“Is that what it is? Like, is it really that you’re an alien and you put some kind of microchip in my brain-”

“Oh yeah, Beca, totes.”

Beca grinned, shoving her hands into her pockets. She didn’t know what it was but it seemed like Red was coming out of her shell a little bit, laughing more, teasing and - flirting? Was this what legitimate flirting felt like? “Whatever. Tomorrow I’ll take you for _my_ favorite. Wait, will you still be here tomorrow?”

Red just gave a little noncommittal, “Hmm,” flipping her hair over her shoulder and asked, “So. What now?”

Beca glanced around, “I don’t know. Um, walk- uh, walking, I guess?” She tripped over her words as those startlingly blue eyes shifted to her, gazing at her as she spoke. “There’s not a lot-”

“Beca?”

The lead she felt drop into her stomach could have, and probably should have, taken her down to her knees. She hadn’t realized that she had been living in a warm glow, that she had felt kind of...happy...there with Red, not until it was suddenly taken away by Hayden’s voice.

“Beca! Wow! I haven’t seen you all summer.”

Her eyes rolled into a slow blink before she glanced down at her shoes, her thumbs hooking into her pockets. She was just putting off the moment that she would have to turn around and face them.

With a sigh, she turned.

“Heeeeeey, Hayden.” She said heavily and then with a stiff nod in his direction, “Conner.”

She didn’t want to be there suddenly. She hated this, hated seeing the way that Conner gave that stupid little head jerk to get his hair out of his eyes. God, had he always looked like that much of a douche? They were in the middle of Illinois. Surfer chic just made you look like a tool. Why had she ever been friends with him? Fucking fuck, why had she and Red come here at all? She should have known. She had thought that the worst thing would be running into the guy who had literally shoved her into a locker when he thought she had been looking at his girlfriend. She hadn’t even thought about… Entirely awkward, she clicked her tongue a little, watching Hayden’s green eyes shoot from Beca to Red and back.

“How are you?” Hayden asked.

“Err,” and here it came, the bumbling idiot who never knew how to respond in this situation. “I’m um, I’m good, I uh,” damn it. She wished for just a second that maybe Red wasn’t there to watch her turn into this bumbling idiot. This had been _such_ a big stupid thing in her life and she was so ready to leave it behind. She almost wished, for one fleeting second, that she _was_ going to wake up tomorrow and get on a plane. This situation, whatever the fuck was happening with the whole Red thing and the suspended time thing or whatever - it was great. She was having fun here with Red tonight, but she wished that there was an escape route from her life. Right now. “I’m good. How - how are you?”

“What are you doing here?” Hayden asked, her head tilting in question.

Beca scoffed, “What am I doing at the mall? You guys don’t exactly own the mall, right? Or did I miss a memo or -” _This is going well._ “You know what, never mind.” She glared for a second at Conner who was staying absolutely silent. There was a time once that he would have jumped in and helped her out. Now the dick just stood there glaring at her. Her own scowl turned, staring up at the sky for a second, feeling her cheeks flush. She could feel Red’s eyes on her, she could feel that Red was honestly shocked by Beca’s sudden tension and awkward stumbling. The corners of her eyes prickled with humiliation. Man, she knew that if Red was really ‘her creation’ then she probably didn’t have to but she kind of - well - she just wished this wasn’t happening in front of her. Nothing says ‘you should totally stop flirting with me now’ like being confronted with your only ex who was now with your best friend who outed you to the whole school...and she...alien or figment or whatever, she kind of wanted to impress Red.

“No! Of course not.” Hayden laughed. Ugh, that laugh used to make her smile so much and now it was like nails on a chalkboard. “I just meant that you don’t usually hang out here.”

“Oh!” Beca jumped as Red spoke, “That was my fault.” And suddenly Beca felt a warm soft hand slip into hers as Red casually leaned against Beca’s arm.

She glanced over, her eyebrows high but Red wasn’t looking at her. She instead leaned her head on Beca’s shoulder, smiling at Hayden and giving Beca’s hand a tight squeeze.

Did she like this?

Was she allowed to like this?

Beca wasn’t sure.

She kind of wanted to run the opposite direction.

She kind of wasn’t sure she liked the contact. She wasn’t sure she liked - but then she noticed the soft warmth that was building around her heart. She felt the way her stomach had begun a gentle ballet and the way the blush on her cheeks didn’t feel hot and angry but warm and tingly.

Yeah. Yeah, okay, she liked it. She liked it a lot.

And the moment that thought registered Red’s hand left hers to instead snake around her waist, continuing to give Hayden a sweet stare down.

“Oh!” Hayden blinked, clearly caught off guard. “Um, who’s this, Beca?”

Amusement quickly covering the hurt she couldn’t help but to notice the exact way that Hayden’s eyes had followed the movement of Red’s arm. That was...interesting but right now she didn’t even fucking care. She wasn’t alone in this. She _wasn’t alone_ for the first time in months – maybe years. The thought made her want to jump up and down, made her want to sing...made her want to cry

“Who me?” Red spoke for Beca, her long eyelashes fluttering coyly. “You can call me Red. I’m Beca’s _new_ girlfriend!”

“Girlfriend?” Conner asked, speaking for the first time.

“Yup.” Red shot him a withering look as Conner glanced uncomfortably at his girlfriend, “Don’t worry. It’s not contagious.”

Beca let out a snort, feeling lighter than she had in months.

“But you look,” Hayden stammered, “… _older_. You look like you’re in college, at least.”

“Oh. I am.” Red beamed, laughing as Conner, not seeming to like something in Hayden’s voice, wrapped his arm around his girlfriend too. “I really am.” Red said with a wink and a sigh, “I don’t know. What can I say? I just _couldn’t_ keep my hands off of this one.” And with that Red did something that _no one_ had ever done to Beca before.

There in the middle of the mall she openly, brazenly and possessively as though it fucking belonged to her, reached down and cupped a cheek of Beca’s ass and _squeezed_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Just wanted to drop a note and say thanks for reading this silly little fic! I hope it hasn't been too rough to read since my betas are busy with my two other stories! Anyway, thanks so much for reading!

Beca thought that there was a good chance that this was how she was going to lose her arm. “Red! Jesus, ow! Red!” She half laughed, half moaned as Red just walked her through the courtyard and toward the car that she had decided would as of now be called ‘Cherry’. “You have absolutely no chill right now. Dude! Ow!”

Red barely seemed to hear her.

She had held tight to Beca, her hand possessively in Beca’s back pocket, her cheek against Beca’s shoulder until, perplexed and looking unhappy, Conner and Hayden had disappeared into a nearby store. Then Red had taken off toward the car, a look of fury on her face as she pulled Beca along.

“Red! Dude!” Beca gave a little yank but they had crossed the street and were now standing next to Cherry.

Red spun on her heels and suddenly she was a breath away from Beca, her blue eyes overly large and worried, “Are you okay?”

Beca blinked, a little frazzled as Red softly brushed a strand of hair away from Beca’s lips, her fingers grazing her cheek before her thumb traced her collarbone. Her eyes were so intense, trying to pick every grain of emotion from her. “Uh, yeah, yeah, I’m okay.” And she was.

For fuck sake, was she kidding? She was fucking  _ golden _ .

Red’s eyes grew even wider, panicked as she whispered, “I could feel - I could feel what you were feeling. Don’t lie to me, Beca Mitchell.”

The stupid grin that had just popped to Beca’s lips at the thought of  _ exactly _ how she was feeling finally dropped. She frowned, wondering if Red meant that literally or not. She decided, just like the weird blue lightning and the car that magically appeared, that Red probably could. “Well,” she caught Red’s hand that had been lightly brushing against the back of her own, “if you can...then feel how I’m feeling  _ now _ .” She waited, a grin growing yet again because she couldn’t fucking help it.

It took a moment of Red’s eyes narrowing before suddenly she was grinning too, her lip teasingly between her teeth. “Oh really?”

“Well,” and now Beca was blushing, “you did just have your hand on my butt. And not to sound like I was counting or noticed or anything but it  _ was _ for like a whole minute.”

“A minute?” Red mockingly gasped, “A  _ whole minute?” _

“Oh my god, shut up,” Beca scoffed, tilting her head back to laugh up toward the heavens to avoid their faces being that close as the blush took over.

She heard Red giggle and then with a sudden drop of her head Red planted a kiss against Beca’s stretched throat and ducked away, her eyes twinkling as she got into the opposite side of the car.

Beca took a deep breath, loving how she was feeling and glanced across to the courtyard again.

She scowled.

Of course both Hayden  _ and  _ Conner were standing there, watching Beca with twin looks of horror on their faces.

She stared back at them for a second, wondering what in the fuck was so interesting. Her eyebrow popped and with a shrug she gave them both of her middle fingers, her tongue sticking out like Gene Simmons and got into the car.

___________________________

Beca’s whole body was still tingling as they pulled back up to her house. She was trying hard not to show it, to play it off cool like she had hot women grabbing her ass and kissing her neck all of the time, but inside she was still a little giddy.

Red - had - touched - her - butt.

Red - had - kissed - her - neck.

Holy shit.

Still. As they had passed onto Hughes Lane the grope and the kiss lost a little of their weight and her spirits did begin to fall. She really didn’t want them to. She just kept thinking about Hayden’s stupid voice as she asked what Beca was doing there. It was like she thought Beca was a leper and therefore not safe for the public. Like she might get her gayness on something and create a pandemic of muff diving and cock sucking all through the wider Shermer area.

She got out of the car and closed the door with a sigh. The high that she had felt while standing there next to Red and listening to her politely freeze out Conner and Hayden was now beginning to fade, falling back into a semi blue state.

“Hey.”

She looked up and gave Red an automatic smile. Red hadn’t said much since they left the mall, seemingly lost in her on thoughts or perhaps allowing Beca to have hers. Now, however, she was standing on the curb, a smile on her face and her hand outstretched. Beca took it, liking the way it felt when their fingers intertwined, liking this new touching thing.

The house was empty but Beca barely noticed that since the house was almost always empty. Yawning, she realized suddenly that she was exhausted. She made her way up the stairs wondering how the rest of the night was going to go. Did she just go to bed? What happened to Red? Did Red sleep? Should they share a bed? Should she make Red a bed? No, she should make herself a bed on the floor and give Red the bed. That was the right thing to do.

“You tired?”

Beca gave her a small side glance, “Yeah, I am. Um, err, are - are you?”

“A little bit.”

Red followed her into her bedroom and then took a seat on the bed when Beca excused herself to the bathroom.

She just wished that they hadn’t run into Hayden and Conner. She was happy, she was enjoying all of this but there was a drop of sad in this too now.

She brushed her teeth, combed her hair and pulled on her ratty sleep tank and bottoms, moving tentatively out and into her bedroom. She didn’t know what she had expected but there was Red sitting on her bed in a cute little cami sleep set, smiling at her like she had been waiting for  _ forever  _ and was so happy to see her.

Of course she slept. Beca internally rolled her eyes at herself. She was still a person, right? Um…maybe? She wasn’t sure. Either way it did make sense that she slept. Then again…she also zapped things into existence with blue magic so maybe she needed to cut herself some slack.

Feeling distinctly awkward Beca shifted in place for a moment before crawling into bed beside her, wondering vaguely if Red was just going to get under the covers too.

“So.”

“Hmm?”

“Will you tell me about it?” Red hedged, her voice soft as she clicked off the light and, making Beca’s mind spin a little, settled down under the blankets.

“About what?” Beca asked, feigning innocence.

“Oh come on, Becs.” Beca jumped when she felt fingers, invisible in the darkness, touch her face again.

Beca let out a forced sigh, pulling herself up so she could wrap her arms around her legs, her cheek resting on her knees. “It was just this stupid high school thing.” She suddenly exploded. “They’re just -” she shoved the blankets off of her, agitated more than adverse to their warm weight, “they’re assholes.”

She felt a hand close on hers and though she couldn’t see her, the kiss that she suddenly felt to her fingers knocked her anger away faster than it had come.

“Come on  _ I’m _ someone you can talk to,” Red whispered, holding her hand in her lap. “Talk to me.”

Beca cleared her throat, rolling her eyes. She was starting to adjust to the darkness and in it she could see Red watching, her eyes were so light in color that they almost shone, wide and honest. “Right. ‘Kay. Um. I mean, it’s all stupid. Conner, um, he was kind of my best friend. Like my  _ best _ fucking best friend since my freshman year. I mean he was an idiot but he was my friend. We always fucked around together and I’ve never really had or wanted a bunch of friends so Conner was kind of it for me. Anyway, at the start of junior year Hayden moved here and-” she let out a long breath, speaking fast, “I don’t know, she was kind of gorgeous and I had a huge thing for her. I was pretty sure I wasn’t straight but I didn’t really know. Conner and I used to joke about it a little bit because we both thought the same actresses were hot. But that was kind of like, all we said about it really. So anyway there was this night where his folks were out of town so he had me come over. We had a few beers from his dad’s fridge and got a little drunk and I told him that I had a  _ thing - crush - whatever _ on Hayden. It wasn’t a big deal. He didn’t really give two shits at the time. But then I got assigned to a project with Hayden in history and so I started giving Conner a hard time like haha I got her as a partner and you didn't. I mean, he was my best friend, right? I was just teasing him. Whatever. It didn’t mean anything.”

“Okay.” Red nodded to show that she was following.  

“But then like,” Beca let out a dry laugh, “Hayden was  _ so _ fucking nice, you know? Like, she didn’t just treat me like I was the weird girl in school and then suddenly the three of us were hanging out outside of class. Like, they kept showing up at my classes as they were letting out and stuff. And then one day she and I were hanging out at her place watching a movie and she kissed me. I couldn’t  _ fucking  _ believe it. I mean you saw Conner. He’s gorgeous. I thought for sure she would go for him. I mean, they were friends too. But she didn’t. She straight up chose me.” She felt Red begin to stroke her fingers and a gentle calm washed over her, soothed by the touch.

“Was that your first kiss?”

Beca laughed a little and admitted, “Yeah,” thankful for the darkness. “Anyway, she was my girlfriend for like four months and it was freaking great. We didn’t tell anyone because, hello, this is fucking Shermer and I guess I didn’t want anyone to know.”

“That’s totally understandable, Becs.”

“Yeah well. It didn’t end up so great. One day I had her over and we were making out on my bed.”

“Right here?”

Beca flushed as she heard the teasing lilt to Red’s voice. “Uh yeah, I guess so.”

“What happened?”

“Conner came storming in, all pissed. I knew that he had asked Hayden out that morning and she had told him she was seeing someone. I was shocked she had done it. I don’t know if he was coming over to tell me about it or what but he caught us and, oh my god, he was  _ so  _ mad. I tried talking to him after he stomped out, like I called him a bunch of times but he wouldn’t pick up. The next day he told everyone at school that he had caught Hayden and me lezzing out.”

“Oh no.”

“Yeah. It was really freaking fun.” She ran her fingers through her hair, her hand balling into a fist at her crown as she tried not to remember the look on her mother’s face when Conner’s mom had come over to tell her all about what her son had seen. “I got grounded for the rest of the year, which was  _ fine _ because no one at school would talk to me. Like at all. I’m pretty sure that there were other gay kids there but none of them would talk to me because they were afraid of being outed too. And like, this girl started hanging out with me for a little while which was great because all of that sucked but then I found out she was just trying to get me to go with her to church so she could save me. Actually, I lied, I  _ did  _ have people hanging around. Guys were suddenly like super grossly into me. Which…that was fun.”

“And Hayden?”

“Hayden-” she sighed, “Hayden freaked. Her family are all Baptists and she couldn’t hang. She told me and  _ anyone who would fucking listen _ that she wasn’t gay. She told everyone that I was this huge creeper who had come on to her.”

_ “What? _ ”

“Yeah, like somehow my super-gay-superpowers made _her_ lay on my bed and make out with me. It was freaking crazy, Red. I tried to talk to her because I kind of thought we had a real thing, but she just kept calling me a freak and insisting that she had just been waiting for a hot guy to become available. It was so, I don’t know, it was queerballs. The whole school banded together against me. I couldn’t go into the locker rooms anymore; I couldn’t go into the bathrooms. People were shoving me and calling me names all of the fucking time. It - it fucking sucked. No one knew for sure if I was gay or if I had basically attacked Hayden but it really didn’t matter.”

Scooting a little closer Red asked, “And when did she get with Conner?”

“Like two days after he caught us. It was like she had to prove that she was super straight by sucking his dick or something, I guess.”

Red let out a snort that made Beca look up, able to see her fully now despite the dark.

“What?”

“She’s not.”

A small smile blooming at the indignation in her voice, “What do you mean?”

“Hayden is  _ so _ not straight.”

“ _ What? _ Do you actually  _ know _ that or-”

“Oh yeah,” she said, a smug little look on her face. “She’s going to marry a woman named Zoe. They’re going to have three kids and adopt a little boy with Down’s Syndrome. Super cute too.”

Beca blinked, “ _ Really? _ ”

“Really?”

But then the joy was gone again and her head fell back to her knees, “I lost the girl even though the girl was gay. That’s great. Ugh, fuck!  _ And  _ she’s even going to grow up to be a decent person? Really? Fucking, really?”

“Hey.”

Beca blinked a few times as Red softly cupped her cheeks, staring deeply into her eyes. She took a relishing deep breath and then said, “Just  _ wait  _ until you see who  _ you _ marry!”

“What? Really? What, wha, uh, what does she - what does she look like? Who is she? When will I meet her? What’s her name?”

But Red just mimicked locking her lips and throwing away the key.

“Ugh, you’re kidding me! You can’t just tell me that and then not tell me!”

Red’s look said that she really wasn’t all of that sorry for the cliffhanger, “But,” she pulled Beca so she swiveled around and was sitting in front of her, “she’s  _ so  _ worth the wait.”

“I just-” Beca spluttered and then fell backward sprawled across the bed, “Ugh.” After a second of thinking she lifted her head, “Is she hot?”

“ _ So hot _ .”

“Yeeessss!” Beca hissed and then laughed as Red pulled her back up by the arms.

“I have a question.”

“Hmm?” Beca frowned, the lighter bubble they had formed popping.

“Why did you care so much? I mean, if she didn’t want to be with you then why did you want her so badly?”

Beca sighed, picking at her nails, “I kind of think I loved her.”

“Did you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. I think so, yeah. I mean, she was the only girl I even kind of dated and I’ve never - you know -  _ been _ with anyone. So, yeah I think so. God, it’s so fucking good to know I’m not going to die alone because it was looking grim for a while there.”

“Oh no. You’re about to discover a whole bunch of things about yourself Beca, and she is part of the package.”

Beca grinned, “So then, I meet her at Barden? I do, don’t I? Oh, come on! You have to tell me!”

Red just shook her head, her hands falling to Beca’s knees, “Beca?”

“What’s up?”

“Have you ever kissed anyone else?”

Beca’s mouth dropped open, hanging loose.

The truth was that she  _ hadn’t _ kissed anyone else. There had been a girl at a party once but that chic had been so drunk that she had puked before Beca had been able to really go for it. In fact, she had only just managed to jump out of the way in time. Which had been...yeah...that had been fucking humiliating. But like fucking hell she was going to admit that.

“What? Of course! I’ve totally kissed other girls! Um, three. I’ve kissed three...other...um, other girls.”

Red gasped, “You  _ haven’t! _ ” Her fingers closed tighter on her knees making Beca obstinately giggle and twist away from the tickle. Red only let her go so she could take her hands and hold her so she couldn’t get away.

“Dude, I just said three!”

“ _ How _ \- are you going to get the girl if you don’t know how to kiss her, Beca?”

“Oh my god!” Beca cried, falling sideways and covering her head with one of her pillows. She could still feel Red’s hands on her legs, could feel the light tickle of her fingers. So she hadn’t kissed another girl. So what? She would. Red had just told her that one day she would be married to a beautiful woman, right? So she had to do something correctly. No big deal. It would happen. From under her downy protector she heard Red shift. Maybe - her face scrunched as the thought occurred to her, maybe - Red would let her kiss her. She didn’t know. How were you supposed to know if a girl would let you kiss them? She had pulled her into the shower and gotten very, very naked and she had kissed her neck and her fingers but she hadn’t actually, you know,  _ kissed _ her. Was it weird to kiss a figment of her imagination? Was she taking advantage? Did Red want her to? Was this one of those things, like, since she was the creator it kind of fell on her to make the first move? Or wait, had the getting naked thing been her version of a first move? Because if Beca hadn’t been a chicken, a lot of things could have happened - so getting naked had meant that Red was okay with that, right? God, why couldn’t she figure this stuff out?

The pillow disappeared and suddenly Red was leaning over her, smiling down in such a way that made Beca’s limbs freeze. “This pillow is starting to smoke from how hard your brain is working.”

Beca’s head popped up, though nothing else moved, “Dude, can you like freaking read my thoughts or something?”

“No. But you really don’t have to be a genius to figure out what was probably happening in your head.”

Beca’s head hit the blankets again.

“Beca?”

“What?” She asked, slightly pouty and embarrassed.

“Do you want to kiss me?”

Instantly her mind began a somersaulting panic. Did she want to kiss her? Was she fucking kidding? Oh god, should she kiss her?

She wanted to kiss her.

She hella wanted to kiss her.

Of course she did.

Look at her. She was beautiful. But more than that - she was nice to her in a way that Beca almost didn’t understand. And Red looked at her sometimes like she wanted to kiss her too.

“Um. Yes. Yes please.”

“Okay.” And then with the softest brush of lips and in this strange angle, Red was kissing her so sweetly that it made her head spin. It was like being heavily weighed down to the earth and flying through the clouds all at once and though the kiss was only moments long it left her breathless.

She probably should say something right now. She was pretty sure it was time for that, but she had no idea what to say so she just mumbled, “Your lips are soft.”

Red sat back, taking Beca’s hands into her own. “Come here.”

She hadn’t meant to move that fast. One second she was lying on the bed and the next she was upright, sitting cross-legged in front of Red and a little embarrassed by her eagerness. Red, however, just smiled. “Kiss me.”

“What?” Beca’s head dropped, embarrassed, “Like, just go for it?”

“Yup. Just go for it.”

Okay, the thing was...even with Hayden she hadn’t done...a lot of kissing. “But I um-”

Red pulled her in by the back of the neck and Beca was kissing her again.

It only took her a second to realize that it wasn’t working.

Somehow… she didn’t...what was… her lips just weren’t quite matching the way Red’s were pressing. She tried again but it still wasn’t quite right.

After a second Red very slowly pulled back, her eyebrows high and, amusement on her face, gently began massaging Beca’s cheeks, trying to get them to loosen up.

“Was that bad?” Beca asked in a high panicked voice, “Oh god, that was bad!” She melted into a puddle right there on the blankets, her whole body going slack as she tried to hide her face. “Oh my god, no wonder Hayden thought she wasn’t gay! She couldn’t get into it because I’m a shitty shitty kisser! Oh god, I’m a meme about turning gay girls straight!”

“Hey, hey!” Red laughed, catching her and pulling her back up, “No, you’re not! Relax. It just means that we’re going to have to practice.”

“Pra - practice?” She blinked and then her eyes shot wide, “Oh!  _ Oooooh _ , you mean more kissing?”

“Mmm, yes. More kissing please.”

It was hard not to be a little enthusiastic when Red sounded like that, like she actually wanted her to.

“Okay.” Beca leaned forward, her heart beating in her throat and far too nervous, her lips pursed into a tight circle and tried again. Before she had even made contact Red cupped her face, her thumbs rubbing circles into the corners of Beca’s mouth. “What?” She asked, it coming out strange as Red kept pressing.

“You have to relax your lips.”

“What? Like this?” she asked, her mouth drooping.

“Okay, that’s too much.”

“Dude!” She tried to pull away, mortified but Red held her tight. “Nooo, I’m so bad! I’m an embarrassment.”

“Just listen to me for a minute.” Red insisted, giving her a severe you-betta-listen stare.

“‘Kay.”

“I’m going to teach you how  _ I  _ like to be kissed. What will get me going.”

Beca blushed and let out a strangled, “ _ ’Kay. _ ”

“Relax your lips.  _ Relax _ .” It took her running her thumbs over Beca’s lips, stretching them tight and releasing, stretching and releasing before they were loose. “Okay good. Now open your mouth a little. Too much. Just part your lips a little. Good. Just barely so that there’s just a little room to pull in some air.  Good. Now pucker like you would if you were going to kiss me.”

Immediately Beca’s lips closed, pushing out into the same tense pecking position, like  the one you would use to kiss your grandmother’s cheek.

Red let out a single giggle, “Relax again. Softer than that. Go back to how you were a minute ago.  _ Good _ . You’re a fast learner, Beca. It’s all about the approach, right? That first moment when our lips meet.”

“Uh huh,” Beca mumbled, through lips that were frozen in the position that Red had shaped them. She had no idea if what Red was saying was true but she was hanging on every word, doing her best to memorize it.  

“So,” Red frowned thinking, “you want to kind of swoop in a little from the bottom and instead of pressing you want to kind of, um, I don’t know, catch my bottom lip with yours and then mold yourself to me.”

“Uh huh,” Beca said again blankly. This was starting to sound complicated. Swoop? Like…what, the way a bird swoops fish from the sea? The fuck?

“Watch.” Hands still cupping her cheeks, Red tilted her head and leaned in. She didn’t ‘swoop’ as much as at the last second tilted her head up so that her lip caught on Beca’s, the motion pushing her up and into the kiss.

Beca might have seen what she meant, the whole lip catching thing but she couldn’t she was too dizzy. Red’s lips had molded to her own alright, gently applying pressure but just barely. It was too light and the longer that Red stayed there, letting Beca get the feel for the way her lips were delicately placed, the more Beca felt her insides coiling. She pressed into her, wanting more and felt Red’s lips twist up into a smile.

“Wait a minute, you.”

Beca pulled away but only because she knew she was supposed to. Frustrated and a little anxious her fingers drummed lightly on Red’s legs.

“You’re better at this when you’re inspired.”

Beca huffed.

“Your turn.”

“Um?”

“Come on.”

Beca bit her lip, walking herself quickly through what she had just been told and then with the eagerness of a kid on Christmas morning she leaned in and caught Red’s lips.

Instantly Red was nodding in approval, Beca moving with her so their bond didn’t break. Soundlessly she reached for Beca’s hands and slipped them on either side of her own neck. Beca cupped her, leaning forward a little to give herself better reach.

She could feel a reaction from Red, something she hadn’t felt with Hayden and it was addicting. She wanted more. She released and caught her lips again and again, Red meeting her each time with growing gusto. Just as Beca was considering more, wanting to taste Red, her lips parted and Red’s tongue carefully flicked her bottom lip. A jolt of centering lightning crashed through her, severing her head from her body and yet each nerve was alight. Nerves bubbled for just a moment in her stomach. It wasn’t that she was scared exactly. Okay, yes, she was scared. But also, she really, really, really,  _ really _ wanted to be good at this and so far she wasn’t sure that she was. But damn, Red’s lips felt amazing on her own and she wanted it. She imagined, all in a second, Red pulling away and telling her she sucked and to just fucking stop because she was hopeless and the nerves grew. However, just when she thought she was going to have to pull away or the nerves would overtake her, she felt Red’s hand touch her cheek, reassuring as she gave a small encouraging nod, pushing into the kiss like she  _ wanted _ Beca to try.

And Beca wasn’t nervous anymore.

She felt safe cupped in Red’s hand like that, like no matter what Red had her and would teach her with her delicate touch.

Carefully, tentatively she reached, gently touching the tip of Red’s tongue with her own, feather light and found suddenly that she liked it more than she liked anything else in the world, more than puppies, or music, or Taco Bell. She pressed, running slowly along the side of Red’s, feeling Red take over. Her head was swimming and in her belly she was beginning to feel a gentle pull as Red stroked her tongue, teasingly, playing with her, pulling back every time that Beca pushed for more and giving when Beca assumed she wouldn’t.

And Beca learned. She learned not to move too fast, she learned not to move too slow, how to twist and how to tease. Eventually, she wasn’t even sure what was happening, she took over, doing what Red had just taught her, feeling Red’s breath beginning to quicken, feeling that pull in her belly strengthening. A powerful want was beginning to flood through her, an excitement and a pleasure.

“Oh god,” she finally mumbled, letting her head drop to Red’s shoulder so she could catch a real breath. It was embarrassing how fast it was coming. She could feel her heart beating hard and fast, could feel her palms damp and itching to move and explore. Even this close contact she liked, being on her knees, her face a breath from Red’s throat. She tried to slow her breathing but the scent of her skin only made her insides grow a little more frantic.

Red only gave her five heartbeats before she was impatiently pulling her back, a little jerkily, a little too fast and Beca responded in kind, her hungry lips breaking away from Red’s a little reluctantly when Red pulled her by the chin.

She let out a whine but swallowed it immediately when Red pushed her, moving her so that she was just under her jaw.

“What do I do?” She asked into her skin.

“I don’t care,” Red said fast, breathy with a little head shake, “Kiss, bite, lick, anything you want to do. I - I’ll tell you if it’s bad.”

She felt like the hero of her own story right then, listening to the way Red's voice was growing husky. She carefully licked the skin, amazed by its softness, by the way her specific Red scent seemed concentrated there.

She felt Red shiver under her, "That's good. That's...that's really good, Becs. A little higher. Yeah, right there. I like...I like that."

Beca just nodded, feeling the muscle of Red's neck go tense as she ran her nose as lightly as she could behind her ear.

"Push me back."

“What?” Beca pulled back from her neck, where she had been working her way up to the ear. She tried to clear her head, a little alarmed.

Red just grinned, her lips a little plumper than they had been, “That’s what’s next. Come here. Climb over me like this.” She pulled until Beca was straddling her lap.

Beca followed obediently, swearing in her head so loudly that she was sure Red would hear it, weirdly clairvoyant or not.

She must have felt something from Beca because she paused for only a moment, her eyebrow going high as she grinned. “There are two places that I like to be held like this, okay? Here,” she moved Beca’s hand to cover the opposite side of her neck from where Beca had just been, “or here,” instead of moving her hands she reached around and lightly placed a hand just under Beca’s bra strap.

“And just push?”

Red nodded, “Stop overthinking it all,” and scooping in for a kiss...Beca did.

She pushed her back, pressing her into the pillows a bit and found that she liked that too. She liked feeling her under her.

She lost herself then. She kissed and as she did she watched and felt, noticing every way that Red twitched under her, noticing the way her breath caught and flowed and  _ really _ noticing when Red’s hands ran up her back to ball in her hair, pulling her body flush against hers.

“You know what I really like?” Red’s voice came out gravelly as Beca carefully cupped her jaw, giving the hollow of her throat a small suck.

“Mmm?”

“The taste of your chapstick. Is it honey?”

Beca chuckled and nodded...but didn’t pull away. She was pretty sure that this was it. She had moved in. She now lived right here, against Red’s skin.

“You know what else?”

“Mmm?” She hummed, licking her way up her neck and sinking back into her mouth, noticing with satisfaction the way that Red’s head popped off the pillow to meet her.

“Right here.” She caught Beca and very lightly sucked on the side of her lip, so low and so far down that it was only the very topmost corner of her lips on Beca’s.

“Right there?”

Red nodded, “It’s kind of a thing for me,” she admitted, her voice almost abashed.

“Like this?” She leaned down and, feeling much more confident than she had been, placed a small kiss there.

Red nodded, “It kind of rocks my sock off.”

“Really?” Beca asked with a grin.

Red just nodded again, her fingers lacing around the back of Beca’s neck.

And so Beca added it to her repertoire, moving down her neck, sucking and biting her way down and then back up before she gave that spot a purposeful suck.

Red’s entire body gave a wanty roll before she let out a soft and high, “ _ Ahhh _ ” of a moan.

It was the most fucking fanfuckingtastic sound Beca had ever heard.

She froze and then pulled back, fucking gleeful. “Wait, was that  _ real _ ? Like, a real moan or whatever?”

Red’s head hit the pillow, her chest rising and falling fast, looking openly flustered and nodded.

Beca’s train of thought nearly slipped away as she grinned at Red, liking the way her hair was getting messed up from her own fingers and how her cheeks were bright and rosy, seeming slightly unsure as to why Beca had stopped. “Really? Like, you wouldn’t you know, make  _ that kind of a noise  _ just to make me feel better or cool or something, right?”

Red let out a little giggle, but did her best to keep her face serious, “I promise, no fake moaning. You’re good at this, Becs.”

“ _ Really? _ ”

She nodded again, pushing her hair out of her face and taking a deep breath, “You listen.”

“Um?”

“To how I react. That’s a good thing, Bec.”

“Oh!” Beca grinned, wondering if she could just attack again. She wanted to.

Red’s lips curled into a smile, “I’m about to teach you the most important part. Ready?”

Beca nodded eagerly watching as Red pushed herself under the covers and reached for her hand. She wrapped her around her, tucking her arm from one shoulder to the next as she cuddled into Beca, the little spoon to Beca’s big, squeezing so tight that Beca thought her arm might fall off...if her heart didn’t explode from happiness first.

 

* * *

 

They didn’t go to sleep though, not for hours. Once Beca settled in, with her chin crooked over Red’s shoulder and her arm around the woman in her bed...they just talked.

And it was amazing.

Beca had never known it could feel like this.

She hadn’t known that pressing her lips to someone else’s, that touching their tongue, that listening to their breathing, could make her feel so close to a person. What’s more, she had no idea that  _ talking _ could do even more.

They never strayed from their position, not facing one another but also not bothered by that.

They talked about music, about tv shows, and books. Beca told her more about Conner and Hayden. She told her stories about growing up and of the strange things she liked and disliked. None of the talk was important and yet it was everything.

It was sometime around dawn when Beca realized that Red had fallen asleep in her arms, her breathing even, her hands still holding lightly to Beca’s arm which had not moved.

Beca couldn’t help it. She smiled as she studied Red’s face in the darkness, taking in her long eyelashes, the perfectly straight bridge of her nose, the small scar on her forehead. She settled in, her nose buried in the red waves of Red’s hair, wondering idly where she had gotten the scar and - if she really made her up then where had the scar come from?

She did kind of like it.

 

* * *

 

She was yawning before her eyes had even opened the next morning, groggy and heavy. Fuck, she was tired. Staying up like that had been amazing but now she was exhausted.

Hugging her pillow to her face she decided that she could just go back to sleep, that she should go back to sleep. They were going to be useless today if they didn’t.

“Hey.” She reached over and poked her way across the other side of the bed. She rolled over and groaned as the bright light from the window came blaring in. “Fuuuck, what the fuck?”

And then her head popped off the pillow, staring blankly at the bed next to her, at the other half which was empty, the blankets and sheets still tucked in. There was no sign that anyone at all had been there, no sign that anyone had slept there; they were still perfectly made in just the way she had done the previous morning.

They looked like they did every morning.

Crisp. And empty.

And her heart fell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to drop me a line and let me know your thoughts! Us writers live for it!


	4. Chapter 4

So it had been a dream. She stared at the other side of the bed and couldn’t help but to think...of course it was. Like… _of_ course it fucking was. That had literally been too good to be true. Thinking for even a moment that there had been this super hot redhead who was kind of into her, had taught her how to kiss and then stayed up all night talking with her...how had she even fallen for that? Movie scenes like that didn’t happen to her in real life and that wasn’t her being grumpy or pessimistic, that was just the truth.

Plus, women didn’t just _appear_. Even ones like that....like Red. _Especially_ one’s like that.

She touched her lips, ghosting them over theirs curves and dips.

_It was only a dream._

Heartbreak like she had never felt before crashed over her, swallowing her whole. With a glare, she reached over and purposely messed up the blankets just so she could pretend for another second that she had spent the night with another body against hers.

She had felt...

“Fuck.” She flopped backward with her hands pressing against her forehead, trying to rub the tension away.

She wasn’t surprised.

It _had_ been too good to be true.

And it hadn’t even made sense.

Red had been a dream… a very weird, bizarre, vivid, erotic, wet, detailed dream.

Maybe she had malaria.

Shit. And then it hit her.

If Red had been a dream then that meant...

The sun was up far too high.

 _Why_ was the sun up that high?

SHIT!

She was fucking _late_.

She knew it! She knew this was going to happen! Fuck! She knew it!

She launched herself at her bedside table, grabbing her alarm clock but the stupid fucking thing must have broken at some point in the night or something. It wasn’t telling her the time. Instead all the numbers were zeroed out, all four of them lined neatly and fucking uselessly in a row. Great. Super fucking great.

She dived out of bed, tripping and falling into a heap before she was up and out the door.

“MAAAAM!” She shouted as she ran to the bathroom.

“MAAAAAAM!” she shouted a little louder as she ran back to her bedroom, “WHY DIDN’T YOU FUCKING WAKE ME UP? WHAT TIME IS IT? MOM!”

Her mother didn’t answer.

Oh god, she was home, right? She was home? She had to be home!

Fuck it, she threw her headphones back into her bag, if she needed to she would call a cab. She was going to do that once she was in Georgia anyway so that she didn’t have to deal with her dad and the step-monster. She just couldn’t stand the stupid smug look she knew they would both have about the fact that they had gotten her down to Georgia. No thanks.

So...freaking fuck it, she could do it on both ends if need be.

Would it be nice not to have to? Yeah, but whatever.

Apparently Rudy needed _a lot_ of company.

“Gross.” She grimaced at that as she threw on her clothes.

“MAAAAAM!” She bellowed, running down the stairs at top speed. “MAAM! WE HAVE TO FUCKING GO! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WHERE ARE YOU?”

She stopped so fast just inside the kitchen door that she nearly toppled over, her jaw hitting the floor.

“You’re mom isn’t home yet, Becs.”

“Errrr…”

Red was sitting in the breakfast nook, clad _only_ in one of Beca’s tank tops and a pair of Super Mario underwear - also Beca’s, and reading a magazine with an empty plate across the table from her. “Good morning, by the way.” She grinned, one eyebrow high.

“You're here!” Beca didn’t know what to do with her hands in that moment. She crossed and uncrossed them twice while her heart slammed in her throat. “Like...you’re still here. You’re, um, still here?”

You were supposed to pinch yourself at times like this, right? Whenever you were having a weird psychological break you needed to pinch yourself to make sure you were still...she didn’t know, functioning, maybe?

She did, catching a chunk of skin between her nails and jumped, annoyed by the pain.

"Of course I'm still here!" Red laughed, holding her hand out for Beca to take.

"But, uh, the bed? It was all -"

Red blinked, looking confused, "You don't make your bed when you get up?"

Beca frowned, not sure how to respond to that. 

"Come sit down."

Beca didn't move, "But uh, my flight."

 

Red rolled her eyes, exasperated.

Beca’s head swam when she saw that on Red’s neck was a small hickey...a hickey that she had put there...when they were making out...in her bed the night before. Her grin came slowly, one corner at a time but it came all the same.

“We’ve been over this, Beca, you -”

“Right, don’t have a flight. Not until I wake up. But, uh,” running her hands through her hair she fidgeted in place for a moment, “didn’t I just wake up?”

“Not _that_ kind of wake up.”

“Um. ‘Kay. So then last night really did happen then?”

This time Red was the one to grin, her hand pointedly shaking, demanding Beca’s.

She reached for it, letting herself, slightly disbelieving, be pulled in for a kiss.

Red sighed, letting out a small, “Mmmm. Last night definitely happened.”

Beca grinned, “‘Kay.”

“Come sit?”

Beca did...because what else was she supposed to do?

“Dude, you have to change. My mom, she will totally shit when she sees you. She’s still not over the whole her daughter likes girls thing and she might freak if she caught a random girl in my underwear...in our kitchen.”

“Mmm.” Red hummed, sipping her coffee.

“Also like...my underwear?”

“I like it.”

“Right.” Okay. Beca decided not to question it. “Right, okay. But um, my mom?”

“She’s not home.”

“Yeah, that much I gathered. Is she still with Rudy?”

“For now. She won’t be home for a few more hours.”

“Right. ‘Kay.” She sighed, eyeing the empty plate in front of her. Breakfast was needed but she was 90% positive that she didn’t need the plate. Red had said that the Twinkie was up there, right?

“Don’t even think about it.” Red muttered, not looking up from the magazine.

“What?” Beca jumped, caught. “God, that’s so fucking freaky, you’re so weird!”

Red just put down the magazine, “What are you in the mood for?”

“What?”

Red sighed and pointed to her plate. Suddenly in a shock of blue energy the plate was a bowl of cottage cheese and fruit.

“Dude!”

“Not in the mood for that?”

A flash of blue and it was a steaming bowl of oatmeal.

“Whoa!”

“No?”

Another flash from Red’s fingers and suddenly it was a plate full of an American Slam, eggs, bacon, fruit, pancakes, and toast.

“Ooh!” Beca jumped and Red gave her a very satisfied grin.

She loved breakfasts like this but being entirely unable to make them herself she almost never got them. Totally psyched Beca dived in, “So what’s the plan, um, for today?” She asked around a mouthful.

Red just gave her a slightly patronizing look that read ‘don’t talk with your mouth full’. “What do you want to do today?”

Instantly the sight of Red under her flashed through Beca’s mind and she swallowed, guilty, “Um.”

“All day, huh?”

“I mean,” she flushed, “I wouldn’t be against that.”

Red laughed, a simple happy sound that Beca liked, “I was hoping that maybe you would let me hear some of your music today. Your mixes?”

Beca felt her cheeks go cold as she balanced, “Um, my...my mixes? You want to hear my mixes?”

“ _Of course_ I do!”

Beca frowned, pushing her eggs from one side of the plate to the other. “I’ve never really, um, I’ve never played them for anyone before.”

“Not even Hayden? Or your mom?”

Beca scoffed, “I never really got the time to play them for Hayden and as for my mom,” she let out a rude snort, “She is, I dunno, she’s never been really interested.”

“Have you _tried_ playing them for her?”

“Yeah, of course. Just, uh, no luck mostly. She’s um, she’s busy...I guess.”

A small crease formed between Red’s eyebrows.

“Well, I guess I did play some for Conner once but whatever.”

“Well.” The magazine hit the table with a flop, “There’s a first time for everything. Come on!”

“Wait!” Beca frowned, looking at her half-finished plate.

Red groaned, “You’re taking forever!”

 

* * *

 

 _Baow. Ba - Ba - Ba - Ba Baow_ , was all she could think. _‘Do you believe in miracles?’_ The annoying voice sang in Beca’s head. _‘Where you from? You sexy thang’._

Beca had protested, once her breakfast was done, that they just needed to go up to her room and grab her Mac because she had packed the basement away. It was no longer filled with her makeshift gear. As a matter of fact, her mother had started using it as a storage unit the week before last for her pyramid scheme beauty product business. Still Red had just pushed her, arms wrapped tightly around her and pinning her own arms to the side.

And of course, to no one’s surprise at all, the basement had been back to normal when they got down there. Boxes gone. Shitty insulation back up. Shitty sound equipment set up in the corner on her desk.

“Of course. Why not,” was all Beca had said upon seeing it.

And of course Red had stopped just inside the door and stared around the room like it was the greatest thing she had ever seen. “It’s just so you,” she had said.

Beca had assumed it would take her a while to build the courage to actually play the music for red but instead she had found she...kind of wanted to. She had scrolled through, looking for her favorite mixes, constantly glancing up at Red and blushing, both nervous and excited.

And that was how they had gotten to this place; Beca sitting on the futon that lived down there for guests, her mouth hanging open while Red, little Super Mario undies and all, danced around the basement. She had Beca’s huge headphones on and seemed to have forgotten that Beca was there at all, too busy listening.

She watched Red’s hips roll in a circle, happily bouncing and couldn't help but to think: _‘if this were a movie Hot Chocolate would be playing in the background right now_.

She didn’t think Red had any idea what she was doing. She was pretty positive that Red just liked the music so much that she needed to dance; she couldn’t just sit and listen.

“This is amazing, Beca!” Red cried, flashing her a grin.

Beca just smiled back, a little overwhelmed and not totally sure that she could handle what was happening right now. Red was listening to her music. And she was dancing. That was _crazy!_ How was that even real?

Red reached for her, trying to pull her up but embarrassed Beca just shook her head. “I don’t dance. Not in front of people anyway.”

Red gave a little snort that sent Beca’s eyebrows high.

“Okay, and what does that mean exactly?”

“What?” Red jumped, her eyes going overly innocent and wide.

“Uh huh. What was that little sound you just made?”

“I didn’t make a sound.”

“Yes, you did! Oh my god!”

“Okay, okay!” Red gave in, rolling her eyes, “I just think - that _I_ am not people, so come on!”

She was sure that had been a last minute diversion.  Still, she let Red pull her up and soon the two were hopping around the room and while maybe Beca couldn’t totally let go, it was kind of fun.

“Oh god, change it, hurry! Blegh, I hate that one!” Beca cried as one mix changed to another.

“What?” Red cried, offended, “But this is amazing!”

“Yeah, well, it’s not really my favorite.” Beca frowned, plopping back on the futon.

“Why not?”

“I dunno,” she shrugged, entirely uncomfortable, “I just don’t. It’s stupid.”

She knew why. Of course she did. She had made this stupid track for her mom.

“So how did you get all of this stuff?” Red asked after the next track ended. “Your parents?”

“Yeah right. My mom would never get me anything that insightful and my _dad_ , yeah fucking right, he would never get me something music related. He keeps hoping that I’ll come to my senses and do something a little more reasonable.”

“So how then?” She flopped down on the couch beside Beca, her thighs resting lightly against Beca’s own.

“Me, mostly. I got a job at Starbucks.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yup. I’m surprised you can’t still smell the caramel syrup and coffee beans in here. I swear I smelled like that for a year straight.”

“Mmm.” Red grinned, waggling her eyebrows. “Yum.”

Beca laughed, tickled and a little embarrassed.

“Did you like it? The job I mean.”

“Uh, yeah, for the most part. Everyone there was older so they didn’t really care much about my high school drama. Which, I guess that was good. Sometimes it kind of pissed me off because I just wanted to _talk_ to someone! I knew a couple people there were gay too but it was kind of the same thing. You know, kind of don’t ask, don’t tell. Some of them used to take trips to Chicago to go clubbing and stuff but I never went. Anyway,” she ran her fingers through her hair and sighed, “yeah, it was good.”

“What drink was your favorite to make?” Red asked, slipping her hand into Beca’s and beaming when Beca stumbled for a moment, flustered.

“Um,” Beca started to rattle on, constantly worrying that she was being boring, though each time the thought crossed her mind Red just smiled and asked another question. And it was great. For once in her fucking life she didn't feel invisible.   

Red was back up, dancing around the room again to the mix she had liked the most when from upstairs came the slam of the front door.

Beca’s face fell, her heart instantly panicked, “Shit!” She scrambled, up, “Shit, that’s my mom!”

“What?” Red yelled over the headphones.

“Duuude, shhhh!” She had no idea how she wanted to play this. Would her mom think she missed her flight? Would her mom just not remember the flight? If there was no flight in the weird world she was in right now then we she still grounded? Would her mom freak if she had someone over? Oh god, would her mom freak if she found a girl in the basement walking around in her underwear like that was totally normal?

“Beca?” Her mother called from upstairs, “Are you home, sweet pea?”

“Dude!” Beca all but tackled Red, grabbed her and wrestled her to the couch so she could rip the headphones off of her, “My mom is home! You have to get dressed! Where are your clothes? Dude, she’s going to shit if she sees you in your underwear!”

“Oh, so then seeing us like this would be better?”

Beca looked down and realized that she had her half pinned to the couch and despite herself she grinned and gave a stupid, “Oh.”

“Mmmm, maybe let’s stay here, though.” Red grinned, giving the back of her neck a little tug.

Beca almost gave in and kissed her. Fuck it, right? But then her mother called again, sounding much closer and she was back to panic. “Seriously, dude, you have to get dressed! She’s about to come down here!”

“Becs, take a chill pill-”

“No, really tho!”

“Beca?”

Beca felt her head swim as the door to the basement opened and her mother started down the stairs.

“MOM!” Beca yelped, scratching to get away and head her off, “I can explain, I-”

“Becs!” Red gave a snap and something very strange happened. Beca froze, unable to tell exactly what it was at first. Everything had just sort of...stopped. The track blaring from the headphones had paused into silence, her mother's footsteps on the stairs had stopped altogether...even the sound of the clock on the wall had stopped ticking. Craning her neck around Beca looked at it to see the second hand stuck, no longer making its way around the clock face.

“What the shit?

Red gave a giggle, “We have time.”

“Um,” she felt Red’s lips press into hers and though she half responded a moment too late, she was still glancing around. “uuuuuuuuum…Red?”

“Hmm?”

She felt Red peppering kisses around her jaw but Beca’s lips remained slack as she stared at her mother's frozen feet, mid step. “Did you break her?”

Red huffed, “Nooo! I just liked that position, that’s all. Come back? Just for a minute.”

“But uh, my mom is right there.”

“Hmmm. Should I send her back upstairs? I can send her back to Ruby’s like she hasn’t even left yet.”

“No!” Beca cried, not sure that she liked the idea of this weird voodoo stuff happening to her mom.

She pulled herself up and walked to the edge of the stairs, gaping at her mother frozen entirely in time. “Dude!” She let out a laugh, “She’s okay, right?”

“Totes.”

“‘Cuz, like, this is weird even for you, Red.”

She climbed up a few steps, marveling at how even her hair was frozen mid-air in the act of swinging as she descended. “Fucking wicked.”

She heard let out a giggle and there was a snap.

All at once her mother finished the step, glancing up and letting out a startled yell that pulled a genuine scream of terror from Beca.

“DUDE!” Heart racing she threw her hands out, ““It’s not what it looks like!”

Her mother paused, looking at her like she was sure Beca had just done something wrong, “Oh I didn’t know you had company.” Her mother paused, glancing behind Beca. “And what does it look like, sweetie?”

“I uh,” she flipped around, sure she was going to see Red still lying in that slightly provocative pose that Beca had accidentally pinned her in. She was sure of it and then her mother was going to kill her. Fuck Barden, her mother would ship her off to the moon where she could live out the many years of her grounding in solitude. And yeah, Beca would try to protest, try to swear it wasn’t what it seemed like _and_ that she couldn’t ground her since she was eighteen...but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that before she had even finished speaking she would be on that shuttle.

But Red, it turned out, was sitting on the futon, the headphones in her hand, wearing a pair of jeans and a comfortable looking tee shirt. The clothes made her look far too normal for a fantasy come true and the effect was discombobulating.

“Uuuuh,” Beca stuttered, seeing that both Red and her mother were looking at her as though worried after her outburst.

“Hi!” With a wink Red unfolded herself and stood, hand outstretched, “It’s nice to meet you, Miss. Mitchell. I’m Red, a friend of Beca’s from school.”

The look of concern on her mother's face only grew as she hesitantly shook her hand, “From school, you say?”

Beca let out a high awkward laugh, “Yeah, of course! Like, where else would I know her from. Besides work, I guess, and work, yeah that would have made _more_ sense because everyone there was older!”

Red just stared back at her as if Beca had randomly broke into song.

No, she thought, Red would probably _like_ if she did that.

“Yup!” Red grinned back at her mother, “I was a senior last year.”

Beca wanted to snort. Red looked like she was at least in her early 20’s but whatever.

“And… _Red_ was it?”

“Oh! Yeah,” Red laughed, shaking her wavy hair out, “been my nickname my whole life.”

“I guess I can see that,” her mother chuckled. “So, what have you two been up to?”

“Just listening to some of Beca’s music!”

“Oh, that’s nice.”

“It is!” Red grinned, turning and curling back up on the futon, “I’m crazy about the Eurythmics/Elle King one. What’s your favorite Miss Mitchell?”

Beca let out a dry laugh that earned her a scowl from her mother. She didn't really care much, though. Her mother had never once listened to a single mix of hers. She always found a way to be busy or just waved it away saying something like ‘you know the only music I like is Joan Jett, sugar mouse’. Red _knew_ that. She had just told her that a few hours ago. Had she not been listening? She tried not to be hurt by that.

“Oh, I’m sure they are _all_ great.”

Red frowned, looking between them confused.

So, then she hadn’t really been listening. Okay, that was no big deal really, right?  “Oh that,” Beca dryly replied, covering her hurt with a learned Band-Aid, “is her way of saying she’s never listened to a single one.” She groaned, flopping indignantly down on the futon.

“Beca!” Her mother hissed.

“What? It’s true!”

“Beca, behave please.”

Beca’s arms crossed, her head hitting the back of the futon as she stared at the ceiling.

“That’s okay,” Red chirruped, “Miss. Mitchell, come sit with us. I bet you would really like this one.” She patted the futon between them, scooting over to make room.

Beca didn’t bother to move. She knew that there was no way her mom was about to come and sit down and listen. Literally none.

“Oh, thank you, Red but I had better head upstairs. I only just got home, sweetie. I need a shower and a cup of coffee!”

“Yeah, I can still smell his aftershave,” Beca mumbled.

Her mother ignored that and instead sent Red a stiff smile.

“But wait,” Red called just as her mother was turning, “five minutes won’t kill anyone, right, Miss. Mitchell? It’s just five minutes.”

Beca refused to look at her mother. She could only imagine what her face looked like just then and she didn’t want to see it.

“Red-” her mother started in a tone that Beca knew too well, the ‘I’m sorry but…’ tone.

“Did you know she has a Joan Jett mix?” Red interrupted. “Joan Jett and the Beastie Boys.”

Her mother paused, one foot on the bottom stair, “Joan Jett and the Beastie Boys? Now how is that possible? You put two songs together?”

Beca groaned, her hands dropping from her face and into her lap, “Mom! That is literally all I do! That’s, that’s literally my whole freaking thing! How do you not _know_ that by now?” She felt Red’s hand gently brush her wrist and blew out the rest of her anger in one giant huff.

“Well forgive me, Beca, for not knowing _everything_ about you! I gave birth to you, is that not enough? I’m sorry, Red, but I don’t have the time right now, I need to-”

“But maybe you _do_ have the time,” Red said, her voice light and sweet...a little too sweet. “Plus,” she shrugged, “it’s really cool. Why don’t you come and listen to it for a minute? The way she spliced the two together was amazing. She even added a little bit of Queen to it.”

“Queen, huh?” Her mother asked. She had a strange look on her face. It was a little vague, like she had a little too much to drink recently. As Beca watched the scowl that had been on her mother's face melted into a small smile under Red’s insistent gaze. “Who taught you about such good music?” She teasingly asked Beca and to Beca’s immense surprise, she started toward the futon.

“Move.” Red hissed, shoving Beca out of the way.

Beca toppled over face first before she realized what was happening and scrambled to the far end of the futon, staring at her mother as she sat next to Red, aghast. What the fuck was happening right now? She had literally never, not once, seen her mom sit down here. She usually hovered by the door like she was afraid she would catch something and disappeared as soon as she could.

“So how does this,”

“I got it!” Red grinned, pushing herself up so she was up on her knees and could reach to put the headphones on over her mother's poofy hair.

“Ready?” Red sent Beca a quick wink and then hit play.

Beca literally couldn’t move. She had made this mix for her mother six months ago and _still_ her mother had never once listened to it. She found that now that she was, her whole body was one giant nerve. She wanted to pace the floor, she wanted to chew her nails and possibly just disappear. Instead she just sat like stone, watching every single expression of her mother’s as they changed.

There were many. And they weren’t all bad.

“Beca,” her mother’s wide eyes blinked a few times when the track finished.

“Oh and wait,” Red interrupted, “check this one out!”

Three mixes later her mother finally emerged, eyes wide and her eyebrows high. Beca watched, anxious. She didn’t look pissed or like she was only listening because Red was making her. She looked...impressed.

“Beca, I had no idea this was what you were doing.”

“Um,” Beca twitched in place.

“How do you do that?”

“What?” Beca blinked a few times. She had been expecting a ‘that’s very nice, dear’ or a ‘I’m glad you’re so passionate about it, sweetie’ but that was...that was like a real question.

“I mean, how do you - that’s really very cool.”

“Actually Beca,” Red said casually, “I’ve been meaning to ask you how you do it. Will you show me?”

Beca stared, her mouth open as though she were the newest in a line of awkward and impractical fly traps. She barely noticed when her Mac was shoved into her hands, only catching it right before it fell right back out. “Errr,” she opened it and opened her favorite editing software, “Right, so I-” she paused, waiting for her mother to get up and excuse herself, only she didn’t. Beca couldn’t believe it but she was fucking settling in looking all curious like she did when she was watching her cop tv shows. She looked up and saw that Red was grinning at her. Beca blinked, overcome and suddenly understanding...she had done this on purpose. This was because of her. She had been making this music for a long time now and it had taken _Red_ to get her mother to pay attention. She grinned at her, knowing it was one of those stupid big goofy grins that were always super embarrassing in their sincerity.

She couldn’t focus on that, though. She started in on her spiel.

They were there for _two fucking hours_ , Beca showing them the ins and outs of her program, piecing together another Joan Jett song with a Prince just to show them how to do it. In that time her mother never seemed bored, asking questions and laughing, even dancing in place with Red for a minute once or twice. For the most part, though, Red had fallen into the background, smiling as Beca delightedly explained but otherwise giving Beca and her mother room to discuss.

Finally her mother looked at her watch and gasped, “Oh no! I have a hair appointment in fifteen minutes.”

“Oh!” Beca set down the computer, waiting for her mother to get cross or yell at her for distracting her into being late.

Instead her mother stood and sighed, “Do you have any of this on CD?”

“She does!” Red grinned, grabbing a CD from the table that Beca was sure hadn’t been there a moment before. “That’s all of her favorite mixes, right Becs?”

“Uh, yeah. Right.” She frowned a bit.

“This is perfect. You know what I’m going to do, Beca?”

“What?”

“I’m going to send this to your aunt. I bet she would really like it.”

“You’re gonna - what?” Beca cried, scrambling to her feet.

“Yup,” she nodded, “I just bet she will.”

“Uuuh,”

“This is really cool, Beca.”

“Uuuum.” She shifted in place uncomfortable and then suddenly her mother was hugging her.

“I’m so proud of you, honey.”

She gave a squawk but didn’t pull out of the hug. “You are?”

“Of course I am.”

The hug was uncomfortable, totally foreign and weird. But when her mother’s arms began to release Beca found that hers didn’t, clinging tightly to her mother for just another second before she jumped away, embarrassed.

“Um, thanks, Mom.”

Her mother gave her chin and soft pinch and then was climbing the stairs, CD in hand and calling, “Order a pizza if you girls get hungry.”

“Thanks, Miss. M!” Red called back.

Beca waited until her mother had closed the door behind her before her entire body gave out and she flopped back onto the futon, lying across it with her hand on her forehead, “The fuuuuck just happened to me.”

Red’s grinning face appeared above hers, staring down at her, “I’d say she liked it.”

Beca looked at her for a long second before she leaned up and caught Red in a long, deep kiss.

 

* * *

To be continued...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: The Joan Jett mashup is a real thing. Usually I like to make my own shit up (all the songs in ILY,AN and WYDTM and such) but since this is not my usual thing, I just went with one. Soooo full credit to Metal Open Mind on YouTube for the mashup idea. Look it up, that shit is pretty sick!


	5. Chapter 5

Why? _Why_ was she letting this happen? Why the fuck was she letting Red take her _back?_

“Oh my god,” Red let out a laugh as she made her way around to the driver's side, running her fingers affectionately along Cherry’s hood, “It’s not going to be that big of a deal, Becs! I promise!”

“Riiiight,” Beca rolled her eyes, “because last time went so well.”

 “Well. You did get your ass grabbed. And it did lead to a pretty great make out session.” Red smirked as she dropped down into the car.

Beca paused, thinking that over, “Okay, point well made.” She got in as well, “I just don’t get why we need to go at all.”

Red revved the engine and gave her an evil little grin, “ _Becaaaaause_ , Beca, everything you own is super cute on you and everything but not really what you would want to wear for going out in.”

“Going out?” She muttered, instantly wary, “We’re going out? Where are we going out...to?”

“Somewhere. Somewhere fun.”

 

* * *

 

Beca had thought that she wouldn’t want to do this after her run in with Hayden and Conner the last time they had been at the strange outdoor mall. She had thought that maybe she would want to hide in the closet a little more, not really confirming the rumors but also not denying them. However when she stepped out of the car Red had met her on the sidewalk and had simply taken her hand.

Like that was a totally normal thing to do!

She had just freaking _taken_ her hand, lacing her fingers through Beca’s as she hummed to herself.

She was glad that Red was interested in people watching as they walked through the center of the stores because if she hadn’t been then she might have caught the way that Beca kept glancing at her out of the corner of her eye as if waiting for her to realize they were touching. In truth, it was oddly satisfying walking this way with someone so beautiful and great, she thought as they passed her bully of the entire last year. It was almost proof that maybe she wasn’t such a loser or like...an evil gay gremlin.

Actually, it kind of rocked.

He had looked at her and his face had immediately hardened as it always did. Then he had looked down at her hand in Red’s and then up to Red’s face and the most satisfying dumb look had come over him. He had seemed shocked that not only did Beca have _anyone_ holding her hand in broad daylight…in Shermer, Illinois…but also that someone so pretty could be touching her at all.

She had wanted to run up to him and yell in his face ‘BOOM! WHO’S THE FREAK NOW, BIOTCH? BET YOU’VE NEVER HAD A GIRL THIS AWESOME.

Red seemed entirely oblivious to the people staring. It was kind of amazing and yet Beca found that the less Red noticed them the more she, Beca, did too. Eventually their staring just faded into the background.

“So do you have a store in mind?”

“Nope.” Red flashed her a grin, “I’ll just know the right one when I see it.”

“Couldn’t you just do the thing that you do give me new clothes?”

“Well yeah,” Red rolled her eyes, giving her arm a little playful yank, “but then we couldn’t make out in the dressing room.”

Beca tripped over a pebble, only managing to stay upright by grabbing the soda machine they had been passing. “Is uh, is that going to happen?” How did she just _say_ shit like that? In truth, she probably wouldn’t tell Red this, but she kind of loved that about her. It kept her on her toes.

“ _Oh yeah_ ,” Red gave her a smug little smirk.

“‘Kay.” Beca croaked.

They walked for a few more stores in silence, Beca’s brain moving through thoughts randomly. “You know what I don’t understand?”

“What’s that?” Red asked, giving their hands a little swing as she pointed and made a happy little cooing sound at a baby in a stroller.

“You keep saying that I made you, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, what does that mean exactly?” She asked, the fingers of her free hand playing with her bottom lip.

“You thought me up.”

“Right,” she gave a nod, expecting that, “but like,” she frowned and tried again, “the thing I don’t get is, yeah, I imagined _a_ girl but not _you_ specifically, right?” And that was true. Before this Beca would have always said that she liked darker, angrier girls...much like herself, she supposed. Like, she had a huge thing for Taylor Momsen and Emilie Autumn. She wouldn’t have thought to _think_ of this bright woman with her floral prints and vibrant hair. She never would have expected to find her enthusiasm and positivity so alluring.

Red was silent for a moment, her eyes on the sidewalk as they moved past another store or two. “Oooh Becs, look,” Red grinned pulling her across the walkway to the Victoria Secret. “Oh, I love that one. Do you think that color would work on me?”

Beca gave her a smile, “Is that your way of saying you’re not going to answer?”

Red went on as though she hadn’t spoken, “Maybe on the way back we can stop here and have a private little fashion show in the dressing room where, of course,” her face grew mockingly serious, “participants would be fully encouraged to touch the model.”

Beca’s mouth popped open but she had nothing to say to that. She was too busy being bombarded with images of that scenario. If she had been trying to distract her then she had succeeded. She tried to say something but all that came out were a few strange noises.

Red let out a delighted laugh and gave her a push, walking her into a store two doors down with a quick kiss on the cheek and a whisper of, “I’m enjoying what’s going on in your brain right now.”

Beca just squawked.

She still wasn’t over it when Red released her just inside the door and began rummaging through the clothes. She instead just stood frozen on the welcome mat, blinking and trying to adjust to the world around her, the automatic door opening and closing like mad behind her.

It took the saleswoman giving her a very nervous glance to snap her out of it.

She jumped and then rushed over to Red who was holding up a pair of black skinny slacks. “What am I supposed to be looking for?” She hissed. She hated shopping for clothes. It was pretty much the reason why she only wore pullovers, tanks, jeans, and Converse. They matched her usually fairly heavy eyeliner, they matched her tattoos and piercings, they matched her resting bitch face and they matched her severe resistance to standing awkwardly in clothing stores, not knowing what to buy.

“I dunno, Becs,” Red gave a shrug, holding up the pants to her before frowning and putting them back, “something that will make you feel awesome tonight. I want you to feel awesome.”

“Uh huh.” She turned around, glancing at the clothes and then turned back again, her face incredulous.

Red laughed, spinning her and swatting her on the butt, “Go look!”

“Ack!” Beca jumped and glaring over her shoulder she started across the store.

She was beginning to wonder about what exactly was going to happen in the future now. As weird as it was, she fully believed Red’s story, but believing it brought its own challenges. Like...what now...and...how long? She liked Red. A lot. Would she remember her when she woke up? She did usually remember her dreams but...was this really a dream?

She didn’t know, but she didn’t like to think about it. It was pretty clear too that Red wasn’t going to answer and real questions.  

She was going to have to go back to real life after this, wasn’t she? She would eventually wake up or whatever and Red would be gone and she would still get on a plane and continue on the path she had already been on.

Nothing would be different, right?

She didn't bother picking up any of the tanks like she normally would have. She knew without having to ask that Red would just shake her head and make her try something different while probably teasing her for being boring or for not being willing to try something new. Instead she went over to the section she always stared at hopefully but never went into. She had this idea in her head of what she wanted to look like as a music producer; something cool and edgy but also totally hot powerhouse. She just had never really bothered because where would she wear blazers and ankle boots in Shermer? People would say she was pretentious if she wore that shit to the Taco Bell. But she loved tailored jackets and blazers.

A little shy she picked one up, feeling a familiar longing as she did. It was simple, bunched sleeves and a classic black design. It was awesome. Looking around to make sure that no one was watching her, she held it up to her body, her head tilting to the side uncomfortably.

She wasn’t sure she could rock that.

Suddenly she was hit by a 5’4 ball of vivacious fury, being shoved and pushed toward the dressing rooms.

“Wha - Red - Whu - Aaah - Jesus - Dude!” She quacked and squawked as Red excitedly pushed and shoved.

“That’s perfect!” She grinned at her, fumbling Beca into a dressing room and hanging, a surprisingly large amount of clothes on the back of the door.

“What?” Beca cried, dropping down onto the seat and feeling, perhaps mildly manhandled.

“Strip!” Red suddenly demanded, hands on her hips.

“What?” Beca leaned back, her hands shielding her body. “Dude, no way!”

Red’s eyebrow popped, “ _How_ are you going to try anything on if you don’t strip? Come on, Becs.”

Beca just stared back at her.

Red’s eyebrows pulled together expectantly, sizing her up.

“Um, right, that makes sense. Only, um,” she shifted uncomfortably, not sure how to explain to someone with zero body image issues that maybe she was a little uncomfortable with that.

“What’s wrong?” Red asked, looking truly alarmed for a second.

“Can you um, maybe, turn around?” She asked, her cheeks beginning to burn hot.

Red just looked at blankly for a moment before she finally understood. She gave a little, “Oh,” and turned, a sheepish grin on her face, “Sorry.”

A little embarrassed Beca slowly pulled her shirt up and over her head, watching closely to be sure that Red wasn’t peeking.

She wasn’t shy.

Okay, yes, she was shy.

But more than that...she had seen Red in nothing but her underwear and Beca _knew_ she couldn’t compete.

Still, she could almost feel Red reading her thoughts so she quickly threw on the first top and cleared her throat.

Red turned, giving her an almost sly look over her shoulder before took in the top and frowned. “What do you think?”

“Um. It’s okay? It’s a top.”

Red rolled her eyes, “Very astute of you.” She walked around her, frowning. “How do you feel?”

“Like I’m wearing a weird top at some random store with you circling me like a shark.”

“Hmmm.” Fully concentrated Red shook her head and handed her another one.

Beca took it, staring at Red expectantly.

Again it took Red a second to understand, “You’re so funny, Beca,” Red laughed as she turned, “we’ve made out but you’re still worried about me seeing your bra?”

“Well, maybe if we had done more of that then I would feel less self-conscious,” she mumbled, not really meaning it.

Red threw her a wicked grin over her shoulder.

“Hey! Peeking!”

“Oh! Sorry! It’s just silly. And I’m missing the show.”

Beca let out a dry laugh, something sour brewing in her gut. “Yeah well.” She threw on the top and immediately pulled it back off. “That’s a pass.” She took the next top and almost laughed about the fact that it was simply a black fitted tank. It was a nicer material than normal but still, it was just a tank. Beca liked it immediately despite the fact that something unpleasant was snaking through her at the thought of being on display for Red. She wanted to. Red had already done that for her and she kind of wanted to do it for Red, but...

“Hey.” Red’s chin was suddenly weighing down Beca’s shoulder, looking at them both in the mirror. “What’s wrong? You’ve seen me in my underwear.”

Beca let out a tense laugh, “You just want to see me mostly naked,” but she couldn’t really look directly back at Red in the mirror.

Arms snaked around her middle, squeezing tightly as Red gave a lustful sigh, “ _I_ do.”

“Jesus.” Beca breathed.

“Are you embarrassed?” Red asked and there was nothing on her face except sincerity.

“What? You can’t just read my mind again?” She knew she was being a little abrasive but she just, she didn’t really know just then and so she was falling back on natural habits.  

Red let out a sigh, “Becs, I know you _think_ I can read your mind but it’s more like…I just kind of have the knowledge of you like I’ve known you for years and years.”

“Uh huh.”

“And,” Red’s nose scrunched up, “sometimes I can read your mind.”

Beca gave a snort.

“So.” Red’s arms squeezed again, “Are you embarrassed?”

“Well yeah.” She finally confessed. “Obviously. Nobody really wants to see that. Even you, you’re kind of programmed to be into me, right? It’s cheating.”

Clearly that wasn’t the answer that Red was expecting. Her face crumpled, “Oooh, Becs,” she cooed, “no! Not at all! No! Listen to me...are you listening?” She gave her a little shake around the middle and Beca couldn’t help but to smile and nod. “Beca, you - you are so beautiful. Look at me.” Red gently grasped her chin so she had no choice but to make eye contact with her in the glass in front of them. “Are you really listening?” She asked again, giving her another shake.

“Yeah, I am.” Beca almost laughed.

“Good. Because you, Beca, are so beautiful that it’s breathtaking. And what’s even more important is you’re beautiful inside. You’re an amazing person. That’s what really matters. You’re warm and passionate and weird and -”

“Right,” Beca sighed, “my _passion_ is hot. _That’s_ what I get. Great.”

“ _It is_ , actually.”

And Beca wanted to argue but Red’s hands were moving now, running down her sides in a way that demanded _all_ of Beca’s attention.

“Your passion is sexy, Becs.” She felt Red giggle, burying her nose in her neck. “You’re sexy. And no, nothing makes me want to see you, to touch you, to let you touch me but _me_.”

Beca’s head was swimming, melting as Red’s hands slipped under the tank, sliding over her stomach in an aimless sort of way. It was intoxicating, feeling her nails trace her belly button.

“Is this okay?”

Beca nodded fast, her eyes closing, feeling Red’s lips on her neck, feeling her hands make it to the top of her ribs, only to slide to her sides and slowly push the shirt so it was bunched under her bra. “Becs, if someone cares about you, if they want to take care of you then you have to let them. Open yourself up. Take down those walls. It’s worth it.”

She sighed as Red’s lips closed on her neck, making her realize that while Beca had done a lot of kissing and sucking...Red hadn’t actually touched her in any way.

“See.” She turned her chin again and Beca watched in the mirror as her hands moved across her stomach again. “You’re beautiful.”

She could almost see it. Looking at someone touch her with ever darkening eyes, like they truly wanted to - Beca could almost see it. Beca took a deep hitching breath and, turning her head, she whispered honestly, “You’re beautiful.”

Red paused, surprised and then smiled. Running her finger down Beca’s jaw she grinned, “I think this one is it. Definitely. Try the jacket on too.”

Beca did and - she didn’t know if it was the jacket and the top or if it was the way Red had been touching her but she wanted that dressing room experience that Red had been offering.

She smoothed the blazer and turned for approval, feeling the static in the air.

Red’s lip gave an approving twitch, “You look _so_ hot, Becs.”

Beca grinned and pounced, pressing Red into the wall of the dressing room, loving the little startled groan that Red released.

“Yeah.” Red whimpered, “That is definitely the one. That’s the outfit.”

She didn’t let up, pressed against her, licking and nipping at Red like she had been taught, losing her mind slowly until there was a polite knock at the dressing room door.

“Ladies, is there anything I can help you with?”

“No, we’re almost done,” Red unsteadily called, holding Beca back.

Beca just laughed.

They found her a pair of pants that worked with the outfit and shoes and then ripped the tags off of everything so that she pay but wear the outfit out.

“Am I going to have any of this stuff when, you know, whatever this is ends?” Beca asked, pulling on the shoes.

“No.” Red sighed, a bit sadly, “But this store is in Atlanta too. Okay, are you ready?”

Beca nodded, double checking the dressing room.

“Wait, one more thing.” In a zap of blue Red’s clothes were different. The maxi dress was gone and suddenly she was in a very sexy asymmetrical top, leggings and high, high, _high_ heels.

Beca’s eyes bulged.

“Okay, let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

It had been just after dinner when Red had dragged her out of the house which meant that it just was beginning to be a reasonable hour to ‘go out’ when they pulled onto the big city street and somehow found parking.

“You realize that I’m not old enough to go here, right?” Beca asked, nervously looking up at the obviously Sapphic bar.

“You’re twenty-one.” She said, handing her a small card.

Beca looked down at it in surprise, seeing her own name but the face in the photo was slightly enhanced, making her look a few years older. “‘Kay, let’s just hope they don’t actually look at my face.” As it was, Beca didn’t really even look eighteen. She just had one of those faces.

“Don’t worry about it.” Throwing her arm around Beca’s waist she walked her toward the door, openly giggling when a woman walked out, holding the door open and shamelessly looking at… _Beca_.

“I think you’ll have your pick of the litter tonight, Becs!” Red cried, pulling the shocked and gaping Beca inside.

It was _crazy_ in there. They showed their ID’s, Beca feeling nervous, and then headed to the bar. Everywhere she looked _something_ was gay and yet, it wasn’t overly gay. There were no tacky rainbow flags or tie-dyed dildos stuck to the wall but instead everywhere she looked women were talking to women, women were kissing women, women were dancing with women. A thrill of excitement went through her, giddy at the sight of it all. Red ordered them both a drink and then took a seat, pulling Beca down beside her so that Beca could spend some more time looking around.

“Dude, this is great!” Beca beamed, not even caring that she probably looked like a total goober.

“This your first time?” The bartender asked and, Beca too excited to think, nodded.

“Yeah, I live in Shermer. There’s nothing like this out there.”

The bartender laughed, “I’m from Joliet. I feel you. Here, this one is on the house. Welcome to the fold.” And she set down a shot in front of Beca before moving on to someone else.

Beca couldn’t stop smiling. She felt so included. So _normal_ suddenly.

“Should I take that?”

Red laughed, “I’ll take care of you tonight, I promise.”

Beca gave her a small smile, sure she would and downed the drink, hiccupping and yowling at the burn. “Yeah, no more of that. I’m gonna stick to this,” she grumbled, picking up her beer and sipping it.

Was it fair that she was a little paranoid too? Like, if she were to get caught then maybe somehow she would get into less trouble if she had only been drinking beer. That was dumb. Red wouldn't let her get caught.

“So.” Red grinned, sipping from her glass, “Five o’clock. The brunette.”

Beca glanced as covertly as she could.

“She’s cute, right? You should talk to her.”

“What?” Beca nearly choked on her drink, instant panic in her chest. “No way! Why? Why would I do that?”

“Why not?” Red laughed, she’s cute!”

“Yeah, no, I’m good. Thanks.”

But that wasn’t the last girl that Red pointed out. There was a blonde, another brunette and a raven haired beauty that she insisted Beca should talk to.

Beca turned all of them down, a little weirded out.

“Oh come on!” Red cried after an hour and a half of this had passed. “You have to talk to someone! That’s the best part of going to these places! Get your mac on, girl! _Mingle._ ”

Beca just frowned. The thing was, she didn’t really want to talk to any of those other girls and it was way weirding her out that Red was trying to get her to.

“What about-” Red started but Beca cut her off.

“You wanna dance?”

“What?” Red chirped.

“Yeah.” Maybe it was the outfit but she slid off the stool and held out her hand, ignoring the woman who was cruising Red from beside them. “Come on.” Okay, maybe a little bit of wanting to move was simply to, a little possessively, get Red out of firing range.

But she found that it was actually fun anyway. Red was a great dancer, like a really great dancer. Beca learned quickly that the silly dancing they had done in her basement was not at all what she could really do.

And boy, did Beca learn.

Red was a ball of energy from the moment they hit the floor, giggling, dancing, flirting. She was like a walking pheromone and anyone who got too close became slightly slack-jawed and dizzy. Still she was having a great time.

And Beca couldn’t look away.

“Oh my god, Bec, look at that one over there,” Red whispered in her ear as together they dipped and rolled in a way that had Beca’s mouth watering for Red’s skin. “If you’re not going to talk to anyone else tonight then you _have_ to talk to her.”

“I’m good.” Beca shrugged, not even bothering to look around. She was. She was good right where she was.

They got another drink and then, as if she couldn’t stand to be away from it, Red was dragging her out onto the dance floor.

“Are you having fun?”

“Does the constant smiling not already let you know?”

Red rolled her eyes, wrapping her arms around Beca’s neck and pulling her in.

Beca’s mind was definitely on overdrive all night, hyper aware of Red in all ways. That’s why, a little bit later, when they sat and Red demanded that she talk to anyone, someone, Beca was a little pissed. “Okay, okay.” She finally agreed, through a scowl. “I’ll go freaking hunting or whatever, okay?

“Great.” Red beamed. “You know where I’ll be.”

She finished off the rest of her beer, watching as Red charged back to the dance floor, seeming happy as a peach to be there.

Why the fuck did Red want her to talk to someone else so badly? Like, was that the lesson of the night? Was she trying to prove to Beca that if she tried she could get anyone she wanted? She had seen the looks all night. Fuck if she knew why, but people had been looking at her like they wanted to take her home. She _got_ that. She was starting to believe that maybe Red was telling the truth about that. But...she didn't’ want to go home with anyone. She didn’t want to talk to anyone else.

She got up, a little frustrated and began walking in a circle around the room, feeling distinctly awkward.

Why would she need anyone else when she had Red? She had felt that way with Hayden too. She had just kind of stopped noticing other women that way. Hayden had teased her about it, calling her a ‘one woman girl’. Beca still didn’t really get why that was supposed to be an insult.

She watched Red dance, shocked that she was still dancing alone.

Was Red trying to push her off on someone else because she didn’t want her?

In truth, the thought pissed her off.

She pushed through the crowd, not really giving two shits that she was being rude. She pushed until she was right behind Red and then found that, oops, the crowd pushed _her_ , forcing her tightly against Red’s back. She had planned on just grabbing her but now that she was against her she didn’t have any other choice but to move. It took her a second to unfreeze her arms that were straight out at her sides, avoiding touching anything or anyone. And once she did…she danced; awkwardly at first but then steadily, brazenly letting her hand slide across Red’s stomach in the way that she had done in the dressing room.

She heard a soft little purr and Red turned, her grin huge.

Beca licked her lips, liking the way Red felt in her arms, liking how close they were and that her nose was so close to Red’s. “I uh, I found the person I want to go home with.”

For a moment Red looked around, surprised.

“That’s what it was about, right?”

“Well, maybe more like getting you some make out experience and showing you,” she ran her hand down the label of the jacket, “how sexy you are. So who is it?”

“Uh,” Beca laughed, “ _you_ , Red.”

Red’s dancing stopped, and for the first time whatever witchy thing that Red had going on dropped away. She looked honestly shocked. “Oh.” She blinked a few times and smiled. Whatever was happening with Red in that moment Beca could tell it was real and she kind of loved it. “Oh,” Red said again, “Right back at ya.”

Bewitched they started to dance again but in truth, Beca’s mind was on other things; on the way the air felt too hot around them, on the way Red’s hands had balled into her sleeves, on the way that Red’s eyes kept flicking between her lips and her eyes.

Beca just waited, sure that while their hips rocked, Red was going to kiss her again. The feeling excited her to no end, not really minding that they were on the dance floor, just wanting to feel more of Red. She was waiting, growing impatient but Red held back, letting her body slide against Beca’s, pulling a small groan from her. She wanted that kiss. She needed to kiss Red again. Needed to. But she held back, shy or perhaps just hesitant.

She was getting frustrated as her hand crawled into Red’s hair, refusing to break the eye contact. She closed her hand, balling some of Red’s hair into her hand and pulling up so that Red had no choice but to tilt her face toward her.

Red’s eyes closed, her lips parting.

The sight was too much.

“This really is a dream, isn’t it?” Beca asked, their noses lightly brushing.

Red’s eyelashes fluttered and when they opened again there was such a strange look in her eyes, equal parts sad and victorious. “I don’t know if I would call it a dream exactly but yes, soon you’ll wake up. We’re running out of time.”

“So what was the point then?” She growled, her hand balling a little tighter in her hair simply to have something to hold, “I’m never going to _see_ you again.”

To her surprise…Red laughed, lightly, happily. Softly she brushed her thumb across Beca’s cheek, “ _Trust me,_ you’re not going to miss me. Not with what you have coming.”

“Of course I will.”

“Maybe.” Red nodded, “But that’s okay. Sometimes saying goodbye is okay. Oh Becs, you’re going to be so happy. Once you get over a few bumps, you will be so happy.”

She watched Red’s tongue slip out and lick her lips, a small smile drifting onto her face and Beca leaned forward, wanting to kiss her more than she could resist, wanting to prove that she would miss her.

Red let out a hum, “Let’s-” her words stopped Beca before she could make a move, “let’s get something to eat. Yeah?” She smiled up at her almost apologetically and Beca sighed, her face falling into Red’s shoulder.

She let out a groan and then agreed.

 

* * *

 

The drive back to Shermer felt five times as fast as it had on the way there, and Beca wondered if maybe Red was doing something that made that true. There was no way that they should have been able to reach the city limits in ten minutes. There was literally none. Stunned she watched the welcome sign wiz by, her jaw slack, “Wha-”

But Red just smirked. “Do you want to invite some friends, Becs?” she asked as they pulled into the all night Denny’s.

Beca let out a snort, “I don't have any.”

Red scowled and then, so suddenly it was startling, she grinned, “You will.”

Beca just shook her head as she watched her get out.

It was weird how she was starting to trust it when Red said those types of things. She supposed that meant that she needed to trust what Red had said about her life too, didn’t it?

“Okay so. I get to make you eat my favorite this time, right?” Beca grinned, a little too excited by the idea.

“Right.” Red laughed, her blue eyes flashing with mirth. “Just be gentle.”

“I don’t know, I think maybe after the chopsticks I should order you a burger and then make you eat it with a toothpick.”

Red laughed and it was in such a fun honest way that Beca beamed.

“Hi girls, what can I get you?”

“Two classic burgers, a chocolate shake and a-” trying to read Red’s expression said slowly, “Vani-” Red shook her head, “strawberry.” Red nodded in approval.

“But you know that you’re sharing some of that chocolate with me, right?”

“Logically.”

Their food arrived fast, as it usually did late night at Denny’s. It was the only place to go once you couldn’t stay at the mall. It was used to being overrun with loud teenagers and patrons of the local bars.

“Alright, here you guys go.” The server smiled, “Two heart attack delights.”

Red let out a snort and they both thanked her.

“Yuuum!” Beca grinned instantly dunking a fry into her shake.

“That thing is huge!” Red cried, “No way you’re going to be able to finish that!”

Beca scoffed, overly smug, “Watch me! God for it, dude.”

Red grinned at Beca and picking up the burger she took a bite. Instantly Red’s eyes bugged out.

“Oh my god! This is so good!”

Beca laughed at Red’s shocked expression, “Better than raw fish?”

“Different!”

“Nah, totally better.”

“Shut up.”

“So have you never had a burger before?”

“Have you given me one?”

“No,” Beca nodded, “but you knew that sushi was your favorite?”

But Red was too busy devouring her food to answer.

Watching Red eat the burger was like watching a puppy learn it liked belly rubs. She was barely halfway through when Red sat back, finished and looking sleepily happy.

“You good?” Beca smirked.

“Mmm.”

“I’m kind of impressed.”

“You should be!”

“Come here.”

“What?” Red leaned forward, a little concerned but Beca just reached forward and wiped a bit of ketchup from her chin. “Oh!” Red giggled, her cheeks going a little pink.

“Wait, there’s a little more?”

“There is?” Red cried, grabbing the napkin and wiping her face.

“No, you missed it.” Beca pointed, her face serious and fully aware that there was nothing on her face.

“Where?”

“A little higher. Nope, still a little higher. God, I’m surprised you’re missing it since it’s so huge.”

Red rolled her eyes, finally understanding and dropping her napkin back to the table, “You jerk!”

Beca sighed, “I am what my parents made me to be.”

“Uh, hey. Um, hi.”

Beca had been so lost in Red that she hadn’t even noticed that Hayden and a group of her friends were across the restaurant and right in her line of vision. “Um. Hi?” Beca frowned up at her, watching her glance between herself and Red.

“I’m really sorry to interrupt,” Hayden said, ducking a little like she was worried her friends might notice who she was talking to. “Beca, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute.”

It was strange really. Even sitting there with Red she felt the inclination to get up and follow. She wasn’t even sure why. She didn’t really even want to talk to Hayden. She was actually kind of sick of all things Hayden related and the way Hayden's eyes were flashing just then made Beca feel like she needed a nap.

“Becs.” She felt Red’s hand softly cup her own. “You should go.”

“What?” Beca gasped, shocked. “Really, but,” Hayden looked around nervously and Beca scowled, “Really? But why?”

Red just gave her a steady gaze and Beca, willing to listen, grumbled and stood.

“My fries better be here when I get back.” She was still holding Red’s hand, finding comfort in it.

Red smiled and gave her a small nod, her fingers squeezing reassuringly before letting go.

Beca followed, not all that surprised when Hayden led her, not toward her friends, but toward the back door. Scowling, she glanced one more time back at Red and laughed to see Red reaching over and stealing a fry from her plate. Somehow that silly little act felt like a beacon, warming her despite her sudden cold.

“Hey,” Hayden said once they were outside in the shadow of the door. For a moment Beca thought that Hayden was going to hug her and she felt herself split, half of her recoiling back while the other wanted it...just a little. Though, how little that side of her was came as a bit of a surprise to Beca. “You look really good, Bec. I like the jacket.”

Beca shifted, uncomfortable. “So where’s Conner? Won’t he kind of flip to know you’re talking to me?”

Now Hayden was twitching too, “He’s at home.”

“Right. So what’s up? I’m not really cool with leaving my date by herself.”

“Yeah.” Hayden nodded, “I understand. She’s very pretty, Beca.”

She didn’t respond. What the hell?

“Okay, then.” Hayden sighed, giving her the same pondering stare that Beca had gotten so many times over the four months they had been dating, “Look, Beca, I’m sorry. Okay? I’m so sorry. I just, I got scared. Don’t _you_ ever get scared?”

Beca let out a loud laugh that made Hayden jump, “Yeah, I get scared dude, but this isn’t how I respond. I sack up and deal. Because that’s what you do!”

“You were always so much stronger than me.” Hayden sighed, “I’m sorry, Beca. I just-”

And Beca knew what she was going to say. She knew it and she wanted nothing to do with it. Which startled her down to her bones. She knew that Hayden was going to say she had made a mistake and then _maybe,_ if Beca seemed agreeable, she would ask her to try things again. And Beca had _no_ interest. The thought made her want to jump for joy. “Do you get what you did to me, dude? I don’t think you fucking do. Do you get the total fucking _hell_ my last year of high school was because of you? Please don’t even ask me back or _anything_ like that because that would just be the bitchiest thing you could do ever.”

“Beca, I made a mistake! Seeing you with someone else…I want -”

“ ** _Nope!_** "

Both Beca and Hayden jumped; Beca whirling around, a smile on her face.

Red was clicking up in the most no-bullshit manner that Beca had ever seen from the bubbly woman and the set look of fury on her face made Beca’s heart sing.

“I’m sorry, but that just is _not_ going to happen.”

Hayden looked like the cat that ate the canary, her face pale and totally ashamed.

“Really, Hayden? Do you really think that anything you are doing is okay? You had something amazing!” Red barked loudly enough that the patrons in the parking lot were starting to turn and look. “You had a wonderful, wonderful girl! And you blew it! Not only that, you tortured her! No!” She snapped, wrapping an arm around Beca’s waist. “Beca deserves someone who will _cherish_ her.”

“You just, you got over me really fast, Beca,” Hayden mumbled at their knees.

Beca cried out, ready to yell back about how easy it had been when she was getting bullied every day at school because of her.

“No! You don’t get to speak to her!” Red cried, a hand up rudely in Hayden’s face.         

Elated Beca let Red pull her jaw around and plant and long, tounge-y kiss on her that made Beca melt inside and out before Red turned back to Hayden.

“It’s _okay_ to be afraid, Hayden. It is. But what you did was wrong. And now, _you_ don’t deserve _her_.”

And with that Red was pulling them away from the shocked and surprisingly bitter Hayden.

"I can't believe you just did that!" Beca laughed as she got into the car.

Red's lips just pursed, "You deserve better than her, Beca."

* * *

To be continued...

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note:
> 
> Okay guys, I won’t lie. I wrote this like forever ago and I thought it was already up! Between my ‘Merry Pitchmas’ fic, editing the later chapters if WYDTM and Lagniappe, this story totally was forgotten about! I’m sorry!
> 
> So. This is the second to the end!

**Chapter Six:**

“Jesus Christ, dude!” Beca yelped, rolling backward and away from Red so quickly that she nearly fell over the edge of the bed. “The hell! You scared the shit out of me!”

Red’s huge eyes blinked slowly, a hand coming to cover her mouth as she giggled out, “Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!”

“Were you just sitting there and watching me sleep, weirdo?” Beca grumbled, righting herself and giving Red a somewhat groggy death glare. She had only just woken but instead of rolling around for a minute, stretching and yawning she had looked straight into the dazzling eyes of Red and her heart had nearly stopped. Those were too bright, too blue to be that close so early and without any warning.

“Not exactly.” Red’s nose scrunched, her eyes twinkling, “Well not for very long anyway. I’m sorry! You’re just funny when you sleep!”

“What? Why?”

“You drool.”

“I do not!”

“You do too! Look.”

Beca slapped her hands away before she could wipe a bit of sleepy slobber from the corner of her mouth. “That’s gross.”

Red just shrugged, lying back and pulling the blankets up to her chin, giving Beca her best smile, “Hi.”

Rolling her eyes Beca grinned back, “Hey.” And then her face fell, pulling the blanket up and over her mouth.

“What’s wrong?”

Beca scowled, her eyebrows pulling into a single line as she muttered through the blankets, “I have morning breath.”

Immediately Red threw back her head and laughed, tickled by that.

“Dude! Shut up!”

“Awe Becs!” Red cried, pulling a little on the blankets which Beca held tight to, “You don’t need to be embarrassed by that with me!”

“Of course I do!”

“No way, Becs!” Red pulled a little harder, trying to wrestle away the blanket, “Hey!”

“Nooooo! I probably smell like someone died!”

“But I don’t care!”

“I care, dude!” Beca cried back, working extra hard to hold the blankets now.

“Let go!” Red cried, poking her in the side of the face with her nose!

“No!”

“Let go so I can make out with you and prove that I don’t care!” She gave a yank and the blankets went flying.

With a strangled cry and refusing to give in so easily, Beca flopped, her face pressing into the pillows.

“Oh my god, Beca!” Red cried, sprawling across her back. “Here.”

Beca turned her face, but only a little bit so one eye was free and saw Red holding out some breath spray.

“Better?”

“Mmm.” She turned but before she could reach for it Red swooped down and planted a kiss on her lips before jumping back to the other side of the bed victoriously.

Beca just glared, trying not to choke on the blast of peppermint she had just sprayed into her mouth. “You suck.”

Red just shrugged, tossing a bare leg over Beca’s and sighing as she pulled the blankets back up, “You’re cute in the morning.”

Beca couldn’t help but to think that was a little ironic as she watched Red burrow down, her face resting on her shoulder.

“Do we have to get up?”

Beca gave a one-sided shrug, careful not to displace Red, “Not really. What are we doing today?”

Red gave a long, deep sigh, “I don’t know but let’s stay here for a while.”

Beca gave a nod, all too aware of Red’s leg over hers and wondered if she could turn this back into another kissing lesson. She was pretty sure she needed more of those in life.

But maybe she needed to brush her teeth first.

She excused herself for a moment and then flopped back into bed, pleased when Red just flung herself right back over her.

“You know what would be fun?”

“Hmm?”

“Watching you make a new mix.”

“Didn’t you do that already?”

“Yeah, kind of but that was more for your mom. I don’t know, Becs, but I love it. I can totally see you in ten years behind this big desk and doing that for a living.”

Beca let out a dry laugh, her finger lightly tracing the side of the knee that was resting on hips, “Yeah, _if_ that happens.”

Red’s head popped up, “ _Of course_ it will happen.”

Beca stared at her for a moment, her eye in a squint as she tried to decide if Red was just being supportive or if Red actually knew. “Well,” she finally said, “let’s hope you’re right. I guess I should know in a few years. I dunno, probably less.”

“What do you mean?”

“It's my dad. He’s making me go to Barden.”

“You don’t _want_ to go?” Red asked, obviously stricken.

“I mean,” she squirmed a little, “I’m sure it will be fine. It will be, you know, school. It’s just, ugh, it’s not what I’m supposed to be doing! I’m supposed to be going to L.A. and working. I literally have no idea how school is supposed to help me here.”

“You sound like you already have your mind made up about how it’s going to go.”

She sighed, feeling the usual weight on her chest that was always there when she thought about this. “I know I need to be a little bit better of a sport about this, I’m just not psyched, you know?”

“About your dad?” Red asked like she was already all too aware.

“Mostly. I just am not looking forward to seeing him every day again. Him not being around is a good thing.”

“Why?”

“I mean, he’s not abusive or anything, he just has no idea who I am or what I want. He doesn't know anything about me and the only reason why he wants me to come out there is so that he can feel good about himself when he tells his new wife that I’m getting a free education because he teaches there. It’s not really about me even a little bit.”

“He loves you though, doesn’t he?”

Beca shifted again, uncomfortable. “I don’t know. Probably. He would probably say he did anyway. I don’t know. I think in order to really love me he would have to see past his own giant ego and that’s not going to happen.”

“If you really don’t want to go then why didn’t you talk to your mom?” For a second Red’s face showed complete panic, “I mean, you _have_ to go. You would literally miss everything if you didn’t. You can’t _not_ go! But I just mean, if you were this upset then why didn’t you try talking to her?”

Beca shrugged, a small smile on her lips from Red’s momentary freak out, “I did. I tried to anyway. They just fought because of it. I mean, I don’t know what else I expected. They haven’t been able to have a single conversation without fighting since I was a kid.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that literally. They get in the same room together or on the phone and they just start ripping each other apart. It...it _really_ blows.” She cleared her throat, pretending to study a snag in her blanket so she could avoid Red’s eyes. She hadn’t meant to be that emphatic. “Like,” she cringed as the words just kept coming out, “that’s why I’m flying to Georgia alone. Well partially because my mom couldn’t leave her boyfriend for even like a day, but also because it would be pointless to try and get them into the same room together.”

Red frowned, her finger absently tracing over Beca’s collarbone, “Do you want them to be able to? Do you want her to both be in Georgia together?”

Beca laughed, “I mean, that’s like a normal thing. You know, the whole drop your kid off at school, take them out to dinner one last time, that kind of thing. But, I dunno, I don’t really need it.”

“Beca-”

“No, I mean, it’s stupid, right? I’m literally about to be totally on my own so why would I need that? Besides, it’s not going to happen. They can’t even be in the same room together. It so is not worth it to even try.”

“Well, you won't be on your own for much longer. _Trust_ me.”

Beca’s eyebrow cocked, both nervous and pleased with the way that Red said that, like whatever was about to happen would both please her and terrify her.

“And I think you need to give your parents a chance,”

“Dude,” but Red’s finger fell across her lips and she had no choice but to stop.

“I promise, you will _only be able to say nice things to one another_. Trust me.”

Beca scoffed, rolling her eyes and giving a sarcastic, “Okay, dude.”

“Beca!”

She yelped as Red suddenly sat up and smacked her on the arm, “You have to trust me.”

“I mean, it’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that, ack!” Red had catapulted herself over her, straddling her hips in a way that made Beca’s mind go entirely blank.

“Listen to me.” She cupped her cheeks hard, staring at a very close range into her eyes but her face didn’t look playful anymore, it looked serious and maybe mildly desperate. “Becs.”

“Hmm?” She squeaked.

“I want to say something and I want you to hear me.”

“‘Kay.”

But Red’s face wasn't playful anymore. She leaned forward, still perched over her and rested lightly against her, “You need to give in, Becs.”

“What?”

“You have _no idea_ how much college can change someone’s life, Beca.”

“You sound like my dad,” she mumbled, trying to look away before the discomfort of Red’s sincerity scorched her retinas but Red only held her, her eyes begging her to listen to her - to really _listen_.

So she tried.

“College can change everything, Becs. It will. But it can only do that if you’re willing to put a little trust into people. No one is perfect,” she let out a little laugh, trust me, nobody's perfect but you’ll never grow unless you try. Step outside of your shell, Becs. Make mistakes. You need to be willing to trust them, to at least try. And you need to be willing to be passionate, even if it’s about something you never thought you could be passionate about. And _people_ , Beca. What happened with Conner and Hayden was terrible. It was so screwed up. But you need to let people be a part of you. They are important. And I know that you will probably meet a few people who…” she scowled, “will make you think I’m crazy for saying this but you have to let them in. It’s _okay_ to _care_.”

Beca opened her mouth but something about the passion in Red’s eyes, something about how much she had just openly nailed her trust issues, it made her blush so instead of answering she just let out a little laugh and covered her face, hiding.

“Where’d you go?”

“Oh my god, somewhere less embarrassing.”

“Beca!” She gave her a little shake that made Beca yelp and laugh, “ _Why_ is it that you think trusting people and wanting people is embarrassing? It’s _okay_ to want friends, it’s _okay_ to want your parents together when they say goodbye to you at school. Stop pretending you don’t need anybody!”

“Okay, okay, alright!” Beca cried, sweeping her arms out from under her so Red almost fell forward, “I get it!”

Red just let out a yelp and toppled back to the bed beside Beca, groaning a little teasingly when she saw Beca hiding her face again.

It was just a lot. It wasn’t bad, just it was a lot.

She knew that Red was right that she did her best to not need people. She basically considered that a side effect of life. And well, she got why Red insisted that she needed to change that but at the moment she wasn’t sure she was convinced. Come on, who could blame her. She had literally never met a person who had stuck by her side no matter what. Conner had bailed for a girl, Hayden had bailed because...who knew exactly, even her parents were pretty willing to throw her over if something they really wanted was at risk of being ruined by Beca.

She just didn’t believe it was really possible.

She wanted to, yeah, but she also wanted to believe that somewhere in the ocean mermaids really existed.

 

They sat there for a while in silence, playing with one another's fingers while each was lost in their own thoughts. Beca wondering what life would really look like when she left for school. Red seemed so excited for her.

She wished she could feel that way too.

Red sighed and her leg that had been down at her side slowly shifted, coming up to wrap around Beca’s middle again. Without thinking about it Beca’s hand went to it, hooking it to help keep it in place. It took a second for their positioning to sink through the fog of Beca’s brain, to pay attention to the fact that Red was in her underwear again, that Beca was holding her leg and - had she ever touched her leg before?

While Red might have still been in her own thoughts Beca’s were beginning to swirl in other directions. She didn’t move, worried that if she did she would alert Red to her thoughts and have to hide her face again else combust with embarrassment.

“So. What did you want to do today?” Red asked, sighing and stretching.

Beca just watched, her stomach suddenly filled with butterflies, “Um,” she turned a little, pleased her face was half hidden by the pillow. She didn’t know how to ask. How do you ask things like this? Maybe she shouldn’t ask at all and just pounce on her. Or was that rude? That was probably rude, right? Yeah, that was totally rude, but _how_ did you just say that?

“Becs?” Red asked, her brow furrowing.

“I uh, um,” she blew out a long breath, blinking in one long slowly exaggerated way and said all at once, “CanIkissyouagain?”

“What?”

It took her a long minute of grappling with herself and all but moaning into her hands before she asked again. When she did she was rewarded with a sweet smile.

“You don’t have to ask.”

“I don’t?”

“Nope.”

“‘Kay.” She waited for a second, wondering if Red was going to initiate. When she didn’t Beca launched, latching on like she had been dying to do this forever, which, she had been and she always would be. Kissing girls? Yeah, she was pretty sure that she could be _mid_ make out and _still_ be desperate to make out with them.

She knew, in her enthusiasm that she was being a little sloppy but she couldn’t seem to reel herself back in. Damn it, Becs, chill the fuck out!

But she literally couldn’t.

She had Red over and on her back within minutes, greedily licking into her mouth with all of the skill Red had taught her.

It wasn’t until she felt a soft hand on her shoulder that she finally pulled back a little.

“Sorry,” she said immediately, “I guess I got a little excited.”

Red laughed, “That’s okay. That’s _good_. Excited is good.” Her teeth slowly bit down on her bottom lip, her eyes shining bright, “But there’s also a time for...slow.”

Beca hiccupped in a breath, once again a little too caught up in everything to even be embarrassed by her ardor, “Right.”

“Watch.” Carefully she pushed Beca so she was no longer hovering over her and instead rested gently against her in a way that Beca was sure would drive her crazy. “Just take your time.”

And then with the careful precision of someone who really knew what they were doing, Red began to kiss her. Gently she parted her lips and with a lazy Sunday morning languidity she rolled her tongue along Beca’s.

Her brain short-circuited, giving in entirely to the feeling. Better. This was definitely better. Or just as good. Or. Whatever, she liked it.

Red didn’t rush, bringing their lips together, parting, spending a moment pulling on Beca’s lips in a way that Beca wanted to memorize.

“What do you think?”

Beca had to blink a few times and even then her response was only a nod.

“Try it.”

Beca went a little stiff, not sure she could pull off the cool confidence that Red had just displayed. Still, she leaned up and she caught Red’s lips, gently pushing them apart.

“Relax.”

Beca nodded, but her eyebrows drew down, concentrating hard on relaxing.

“Beca, just _have_ fun.”

A little frustrated Beca clamped a hand across Red’s lips, trying to focus on the feeling of relaxing.

Red just let out a small giggle.

When Beca kissed her again it was just as tense and she wanted to kick herself but instead of pulling away she sighed into the kiss and refused to give up.

And slowly the feeling changed. Red began to meet her with slow passion and Beca found that she wasn’t thinking of her tension. Instead she began to listen to Red’s soft sighs. She began to notice that Red’s hands were twitching a little where they were resting against her shoulders. Wanting to see what her reaction would be Beca pushed so she could rest over her again, kissing her way down her lip, sucking lightly just to the side of it before instantly jumping back up.

Red’s whole body jerked and Beca felt a rush of hot air pass her face as Red exhaled.

Beca smirked into the kiss, pressing a little more, moving a little more insistently and as she did she began to melt. Her chest was growing warm as Red sighed, her face and her cheeks becoming almost unbearably hot. That pulling sensation she had felt before began to stir with e vengeance, making her whimper as Red ran her tongue across Beca’s bottom lip.

She broke away from the kiss so she could breathe a little better, trailing her lips down Red’s throat, teeth grazing against the skin.

“Oh.” Red hiccupped, her hands closing on Beca’s shoulders.

“Do you like that?”

She felt Red nod.

“Right there?”

The tiny sound from Red was amazing, rewarding Beca with increased desperation, “Yeah. And a little higher. Yeah, there.”

Beca nodded, her brows furrowed for a different reason now. She wanted more.

Her hands fumbling a little she pushed the blankets back, unable to help it as her lips pressed a little firmer.

Red didn’t seem to mind, though. Instead she met Beca at each stride.

The problem was each time Red met her lips in that way, each time she was the one to push her tongue a little rougher, each time she let out any little noise - Beca felt herself winding tighter.

It was amazing. She loved it. She wanted more of it. She wanted more.

She hadn't even meant to, she hadn’t known her hands were moving but suddenly she realized that her hand was softly running up and down the length of Red’s stomach.

She paused, almost pulled away when Red’s hand flattened her own, pressing it into her skin.

Beca’s breath caught as, for the first time, she ran her palm over the bare skin of Red’s stomach.

It was so _soft._

And it twitched incessantly, every time Beca moved.

The realization pushed her forward and her lips pressed harder, nipping along Red’s, holding back her own little sound of satisfaction as she ran up Red’s side.

Her hand stuttered and suddenly shot back down, shock making her lose the rhythm of the kiss as she realized she had accidentally touched the side of Red’s _bra_.

She waited, but Red just kept kissing her, harder and harder and Beca wasn’t even in full control of herself anymore.

She pushed up, wanting to feel more of her and settled across her, her hands shyly working over Red’s stomach, over her arms, frustrated that the bra was in the way of her traveling.

She wanted it gone.

The thought of it being gone made her eyes roll back and her hands press more desperately. She was too hot, too...something. The pull in her stomach made her want to press into Red, constantly feeling her whole body clench and release as Red’s soft sighs became more frequent, made her want to take more of her skin into her mouth.

She was dizzy and she was pretty sure she wanted to stay that way.

The struggle became very real for a moment for Beca, debating. Red was just as into this as she was. That was clear from the flush on her cheeks and the way she kept bowing up to meet her but was she allowed? Did she ask? Did she - she had no idea. So she fought with herself, begging herself to push forward and just try. What could it hurt? Maybe Red even wanted -

Without permission her hand had surged forward, closing tightly on one of Red’s breast.

Red let out a squeak and instantly Beca’s hands were off of her.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have done that! I’m -”

Red let out a laugh that stopped Beca in her tracks, making her scowl.

   Okay, laughing at her was maybe not the best idea right now.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Red cooed, pulling Beca back in by the neck. She hesitated, resisting for a moment before she gave in, sinking back into Red’s kiss. “That was just a little hard.”

“So like, wait, you mean, I can, um, that wasn’t-”

“You can do it again.” Red whispered into her ear, sending goose bumps over every inch of Beca’s skin and making her groan, “Just be a little softer.”

It took another few minutes of kissing, of Beca feeling Red against her, under her before she finally let her hand move. This time she was tentative, gentle as she ran her hand up and palmed the underside of Red’s bra.

Oh god, it was amazing. Even though the material Beca was shocked about how soft she was.

“I don’t know what to do,” she admitted, embarrassed as she hid her face in Red’s neck for a moment.

“Do whatever you would like,” Red sighed, arching her back so she pressed into Beca’s palm.

It made her head swim.

“There’s only one way to learn.”

So with careful attentiveness she let her fingers explore, feeling the way Red’s nipple began hardened under her palm, learning how to stroke.

Slowly her confidence grew and with that so did the sounds coming from Red.

She loved them. She wanted so many more of them.

Soon they were pressed together again, both rolling together, as Beca’s frustration grew.

She loved this, but god, she wanted to feel Red’s hands on her. So badly. There was a constant ache in her body, a growing desire that she couldn’t ignore. Yet, Red’s hands stayed planted on her shoulders, not moving no matter how much Beca pressed into her nor how vocal her appreciation got.

Finally, she gave a pointed pinch to Red’s nipple and Red pulled out of the kiss, her face serious as she moaned low in her throat.

She couldn’t handle it.

She wasn’t shy this time. Her brain wasn’t working enough to be shy. She just made her way down Red’s jaw, sucking lightly on her collarbone as her hand slid down her stomach. Her heartbeat picked up, wanting so much, needing to know, to feel her. She held her breath but just as her fingertips touched the soft material of Red’s panties Red’s hand suddenly shot out and caught her. Red’s hips gave a hard and insistent roll into Beca’s thigh and they both let out twin moans.

She wanted her to do that again but Red was pulling back, swearing.

“I can’t.”

“What?” Beca whimpered. She hadn’t known she could be this turned on. She hadn’t known her body could hold this much pressure in it without combusting.

“I can’t Beca. If you do _that_...then so will I, and _that_ ,” she cleared her throat, taking another long breath, “that’s not mine to take. That’s hers.”

Beca just nodded, too lost in her head to really focus on what that meant. Instead she caught the skin of Red’s neck in her teeth and again they moaned.

“Becs? Um, Beca,” Red’s voice came out tight, strained.

“Hmm?”

“Maybe we had better stop. Before things get out of control.”

She wanted to let out a whimpering _whyyyyyy_ but then from downstairs she heard her name being called.

“Beca? Are you home?”

Her heart caught in her throat and she rolled over, flopping onto her back and trying to catch her breath.

It didn’t help that Red just followed her, rolling onto her.

“What was _amazing_.”

She let her head fall to Beca’s chest, taking a moment to catch her breath.

When she looked up again her eyes were still a little wild, her hair crazy as she grinned at her. It made Beca want to kiss her again. “I kind of enjoyed it, yeah.”

Red’s stomach gave a rumble and together they both grinned.

“You hungry?”

“How could you tell?”

Beca let out a laugh, “Alright then. Let’s feed you.”

 

* * *

 

Her mother was downstairs in the kitchen when they stomped down.

“Hey, sleepyheads.”

“Morning, Miss. M.” Red grinned, getting herself a glass of water.

“You guys sure slept in late.”

“We’re teenagers. That’s expected, right?” Beca laughed when her snarkiness earned her a shove from Red.

“You two hungry?”

“Oh my god, _so_ hungry!” Red cried and then grinned a little guiltily. “I’ll cook! Come on, Becs, you can give me a hand.”

IT wasn’t quite as bad of a disaster as it could have been. Beca was put in charge of the bacon and the coffee while Red worked on everything else. Her mother simply stayed, as though she was enjoying the girls, which was something her mother hadn’t really bothered to do in years.

Beca poured herself a cup of the coffee and breathed in the scent happily. She was exhausted and she didn’t know why. “Mom, you want a cup?”

Her mother looked up from the paper she was reading and her eyebrows furrowed, “Beca since when do you drink coffee?”

“Um, I dunno. Sometime around my freshman year, I think? Why?” She jumped, wondering if she was about to get chewed out in front of Red, “Is this not-”

Her mother put down the paper and sighed, “Well. I guess you’re too old for me to stop. I mean, you’re going off to college soo...” But as her mother spoke her words began to fade out, a strange confusion passing over her face.

The whole kitchen froze.

It wasn’t like last time, Red hadn’t done any weird witchcrafty thing. Instead Red had frozen, her mouth slack, her eyes wide and Beca a little confused froze to watch Red freeze.

Her mother blinked a few times and, “Soon.” she finished with a laugh.

“Miss. M, are you sure that you don’t want something to eat?”

“Oh I’m alright, Red, thank you! What are you girls up to today?”

“I dunno,” Red gave a very cute shoulder shrug, “ I was thinking that maybe we would just hang out? Maybe watch some TV?” She said it more like a question to Beca and Beca immediately jumped on the idea.

Something kind of chill sounded nice. She gave another yawn, her limbs starting to feel heavy as she realized just how tired she was. She supposed that kind of making out without any, um, _release_...was a little exhausting.

The meal they made was huge! Beca’s eyes had blown wide when she saw it and yet together they managed to finish it off.

“Oh god,” Beca groaned, flopping down on the futon in the basement in front of the TV, “I feel like I do on Thanksgiving. How are you even still alive right now? You ate like _so_ much more than me.”

“Meh,” Red grinned, “I’m always hungry.”

“I guess so! Damn!” Beca laughed, rubbing her eyes.

“Anything you want to watch?”

She shook her head, secretly wondering if she was really going to get through any TV. She was so full she felt like she didn’t have any other choice but to nap.

“Come here.”

Beca grinned as Red pat her lap and obediently Beca crawled into her, psyched about cuddles and TV time. She listened to Red give a happy laugh, a smile on her face as Red’s fingers began to stroke the back of her neck.

“Hey.”

“Mmmm?” Beca cooed, eyes already growing heavy at the soothing caress.

“Can I have a kiss?”

Beca rolled, yanking her eyes open so that Red could give her a long, slow deep kiss.

“Mmmmm.” Beca sighed when Red pulled away, giving her nose a little kiss. “Thanks.”

She felt Red’s laugh against her mouth as Red cupped her cheek and gave her another long, thorough kiss.

“Hat’sthat for?”

“Just because.”

Beca smiled, her eyes closed as she started to drift into groggy, full-bellied sleep. Somewhere outside of herself she felt Red’s fingers run down the line of her nose.

She let out a small laugh.

And then she was out.

 

* * *

 

“Oooooooh god.” She moaned, the pain making her eyes pop open in shock, “Oh shit!”

Oh god, her _head_ hurt. What the fuck? Why did her head hurt so bad?

“Fuck!” She groaned.

“Beca?” Her mother called again.

With great effort Beca pushed herself over and up, holding her forehead.

“Beca -” her mother called, coming around the doorframe but Beca wasn’t paying attention.

Instead she blinked slowly, confused.

Why was she lying on the kitchen floor? And _why_ did her head hurt like this?


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Note: This is the final chapter! Sorry it took me so long guys!
> 
> This story was really different for me and maybe wasn't my best work but it was fun!
> 
> So yes, Beca is on her way to Barden. I'm going do my best though to skip over the parts we already know. No need to replay them yet again!
> 
> Hope you guys liked this story! Come track me down on Tumblr or Twitter under the name ioliviajanae!

“Mom?” Beca croaked and then frowned, her hand going from her aching forehead to her throat. “Mom, what are -”

“Beca, oh my god!” Her mother swarmed at her bringing with her a haze of bad perfume and too much makeup as she softly patted every part of her looking for an injury, “Did you _fall?_ Beca, how many times have I told you not to use that chair? Are you hurt? Tell me what hurts, baby!”

Beca cleared her throat. It was overly dry and uncomfortable like she hadn’t used it in days. That didn’t make any sense. “Mom, can I have a cup of water?”

“Of course, sweetie.”

Carefully, because her entire body hurt like freaking hell, she scooted back so she could lean against the counter. She groaned as her head gave a particularly hard throb, letting her eyes close for just a minute.

“DON’T GO TO SLEEP!”

Beca jumped, “I wasn’t _going to!_ Shit!” She snapped back, a little overly surly.

There was silence for a few moments before her mother said, “Well. Okay.” She dropped back down in front of Beca, smoothing back her hair to look at the spot she hit, “It doesn't look so bad. And don’t say ‘shit’.”

Beca pulled away, wincing, “It’s fine. I’m fine.” She took another sip of the water and felt a little better, “What are you doing here?” Hadn’t her mother been on her way to meet Rudy? She squinted her eyes, trying to remember. It all felt like it was _so_ long ago.

Her mother frowned, her eyes anxious, “I don’t know, Beca, I don’t know. I got to Rudy’s and I got this really funny feeling like I needed to come home or something. I just, I realized that this is your last night here.” Startled, Beca just blinked at her, “My little girl’s all grown up.” Her mother gave her knee a pat, “So I came back home to take you to the movie or, I don’t know, whatever you would like to do, penguin.”

Beca frowned. She was feeling a bit disoriented and dizzy but she didn’t really think that was from the fall.

She had realized that this was her last night in Shermer? That wasn’t exactly new information, was it? She winced as her head gave another particularly painful throb and she groaned, rubbing her temples. She needed a minute to herself, she needed to think. “Uh, Mom? Do you think that you can go get me a hoodie? I’m cold.”

“Oh.” Her mother nodded and with another glance at the newly forming bruise she rose and clacked out of the room.

Beca’s head dropped back to the cupboards behind her, feeling too heavy.

So she had woken up then.

She had known that she was going to. Red had told her she would. Red had even told her that they were running out of time.

She took a deep breath and tried to steady her heartbeat.

Why hadn’t she told her how little freaking time they had left? Why hadn’t she let her at least say goodbye?

It was _over_.

Whatever that thing was, whatever weird dream I-hit-my-head-Alice-In-Wonderland thing she had been doing - was over now.

Beca reached for the hurt, for the depression and pain, knowing that it was there and that she only had a minute before her mom came back. She was ready to drown in it. She was ready to be miserable.

But Beca was surprised to find that she was sad, yeah, but she wasn’t devastated.

She felt...different now.

Was that weird?

She felt...she didn’t know...

And as weird as it was, she really _did_ feel different than she had when she had climbed up on that chair to get that Twinkie.

Red had changed her.

And now...she was almost excited to get to Barden.

And she was….grateful.

She smiled - actually smiled as her mom came back in, sans heels and with her fluffy hair pulled back, holding Beca’s favorite hoodie.

“Thanks.” She pulled it on and glanced at the clock. It was still early-ish in the evening. Which was weird. It was _so weird_ to think that no time had passed. She still had to go to bed in a bit...she still would wake up and get on a plane and go to school.

Nothing had changed while _everything_ had changed.

“Come on.” Her mother frowned, “Let’s get you to the couch.”

 

* * *

 

Her mom had insisted on helping her up which Beca hadn’t really wanted, torn between the mother she had known and the other she had met in her weird dream thing. Her usual mother wouldn’t exactly be this helpful - so she didn’t know how to react. She settled for heavy snark but also let her help. She didn’t want to go to the couch, however, so instead her mother had brought over the traitorous chair and they had stayed in the kitchen while her mother cooked something, both a little uncomfortable with this decided comradery. It wasn’t really them anymore.

Once the food was eaten they had made their way upstairs, her mother insisting on following her in case Beca needed anything and they had ended up going over Beca’s packed things, double checking that it was ready. As it turned out, her mother had been able to point out a few things that she hadn’t thought to pack and had even told Beca a few stories of her college days that Beca hadn’t heard.

It had been kind of great.

They argued a little bit later in the evening. Her mother wasn’t so sure that Beca should be allowed to go to bed that night.

“What if you wake up dead, Beca? What then?”

Which had made Beca purse her lips and promise that if she woke up dead she would be sure to let her mother know that she had been right.

Eventually Beca won the argument though, because sleeping _had_ to happen and she was able to head to bed. It had been a relief. She had her fill and now she needed some time away from her mom. She appreciated that she had come home to spend time with her and everything; she couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. The problem was that Beca just needed a few minutes alone.

 

Beca stayed up late into the evening that night, thinking. She felt weird now. How did you just go back to life like normal after something like that? Had any of it even been real or was it some kind of crazy dream? It had to be a dream. Right? It didn’t make sense for it to be anything else. Plus, Red kept talking about Beca ‘waking up’, right? So...

What did she do with that?

Still, a little voice in the back of her head kept insisting that she was wrong and that while she couldn’t explain it, the whole thing _had_ happened.

She didn’t know and she hated that fact.

Red had defended her, had kissed her, had told her that she was beautiful and that she was worth something.

She didn’t know if it was real or not.

Either way, she _did_ feel different.

 

And she kind of liked it.

 

The next morning Beca woke with the obnoxious sound of her alarm. Still groggy, he touched her head, wincing, but the pills her mother had given her the night before had really helped. It wasn’t so bad. She had just a moment to think, a fleeting impression of piercing blue eyes passed through her mind and then they were gone, replaced with other thoughts.

SHIT! SHE HAD TO GO!

“MAAAM!” Beca yelled, throwing off the blankets as one. There wasn’t a lot of need to hurry. She had woken up at the right time. Everything was packed. She was good. She was ready. Still when Beca jumped out of bed she was in a blind panic, sure that she had forgotten everything she needed, that the car would break down on the way, that the plane would fall out of the sky...basically sure that everything would turn out horribly. Her luck hadn’t changed _that_ much.

“MAM!” She bellowed, running past the door to her mom’s room, toothbrush in hand. “WE HAVE TO GO! MAM!” Shit, she wasn’t there. Just like before, she wasn’t fucking-

“I know, I know, Beca! You don’t have to shout!”

Beca stopped, her toothbrush sticking out of the corner of her mouth, “Uh, what’s this?”

Her mother was standing beside her bed, a few sweaters in hand and a duffle bag open on her bed.

“Um, Mom?”

“Oh,” her mother turned and smiled at her, “do you think I’ll really need this much stuff?”

“For what...exactly?”

Her mom let out a long sigh and sat down on the bed, “I don’t know Beca, I just can’t let you go alone.”

“What?” She cried, “Of course you can! Nononono,Mom, you can, you really can!” Flashes of the scene she would probably be seeing if her mother came with her all hit at once and she frowned. She couldn’t even imagine how much fighting there would be if her mom just showed up in Georgia with her. She was picturing campus security pulling her mother off campus, she was picturing people standing around and laughing, she was picturing her whole college reputation up in smoke all in one first day swoop. “I’m good, mom, I’m good. You don’t need to come with me!”

“Beca, you’re my only daughter and you’re going off to school. It was stupid that I wasn't thinking about it before but I _can’t_ miss this, sugarplum.”

 

Beca’s stomach was significantly less steady after that.

Should she call and warn her dad? She hadn’t even planned on seeing him that day if she could avoid it. Knowing him, he would know the moment she was on campus but it was her personal mission to avoid him for at least a week.

No way that her Mom would let her do that.

 

This was a fight that she couldn't win, however. Her mother had bought herself a ticket the night before and there was no going back _...apparently_. So Beca just ground her teeth and finished up her packing.

 

The airport was hectic and didn’t really help her grumbling panic.

Nor did the fact that her mother somehow got the window and shoved her between herself and a random man who snored and smelled bad.

But whatever, she was on her way.

Holy shit, she was finally leaving for Barden.

 

She thought of Red as she tried to find a comfortable position, of everything she had told her about school, of all of the things she had hinted at. If Red had been telling the truth then she was on her way to a whole different life - friends, new passions and maybe even the love of her life? She didn’t know but she was so excited...and scared.

What if she messed it up?

Had Red thought about that? Had Red taken her _Beca-ness_ into account?

Probably not. Red had been a total freak who actually _liked_ her. Which had probably been the weirdest thing about her creation.

 

The flight landed and she and her mother grabbed their stuff and a Taxi, Beca holding close to her laptop. She really didn’t think she could afford to replace it if it got messed up now.

 

They found Baker Hall after that creepy ass girl gave her the rape whistle - something that she tried not to wonder about and then found her room.

It was fine. It was all...fine.

Her roommate clearly hated her, which, _great_ , but her Mom helped her set her computer up as well as everything else she needed to do and it wasn’t so bad. This room would be livable and her mom didn’t even complain or criticize the way she was doing it.

It was kind of nice, even.

That is, until she heard a knock at the door and before he even fucking spoke she knew who it was going to be.

And she was so just not freaking ready!

“Campus police, hide your wine coolers.”

She glanced over, her heart plummeting. Did he have some kind of fucking tracking device in her or something? How did he know which room she was in? Stalker much?

Ugh.

Was she really prepared to be at the same school where her father taught? Had she really thought this through?

She glanced at her Mom and saw that signature look, her lips pursed, her nose in the air.

Shit.

Shiiiiitty-shit.

She should totally tell her roommate to leave so she didn’t have to be in the middle of this.

“Chris Rock, everybody,” she mumbled, turning back to her equipment and praying, fucking praying that it wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe she could just slip out, say she was going to the bathroom and instead run away and join the circus. She didn’t really have any talents but she was small…maybe they could shoot her out of a cannon or something.

“Oh!” Her dad stopped as soon as he stepped into the room, blinking stupidly at her mother. “I didn’t know you were coming.”

Her mom gave a nod, “Francis. How are you?”

“Good,” her dad shrugged, “It’s uh, I just came back to make sure you were settling in, kiddo.”

“Kiddo?”

But her dad hadn’t even heard her.

“You look, you look good.”

Beca blinked, staring between her parents. _What?_

Last time they had to speak on the phone they had ended up screaming at one another; her mom had hung up on him after calling him a cocksucker.

“You do too. How’s Sheila?”

“She’s doing well, thank you.”

The fuck? She stared some more, remembering Red’s words.

Had Red done this? No way, right? There was literally no way. That hadn’t been real!

Except her dad was totally inviting her mom to join them for dinner that night and Beca - she had no fucking idea what was happening.

So did this mean it had been real then? Red and - everything? It had been real?

 What the fuck was happening right now?

It was freaking her the fuck out.

“Well,” her mother stood, “Kitten, I think I’ll head back to my hotel and get cleaned up.”

“Yes, and I had better head back to my office. I just wanted to make sure you were settled in alright.”

And she...yeah, she had to get the fuck out of there because this was weirding her out. So when her new and super freaking friendly ( _not_ ) roommate rolled her eyes at all of the talking going on around her and informed them that she was going to the activities fair, Beca jumped on the chance to get the fuck out of there.

They couldn’t argue, right? Roommate bonding or something. That was what she was supposed to do.

 

Kimmy Jin showed literally no interest in having Beca tag along though and took off down the hallway at the speed of light, Beca trailing after her.

She lost her as soon as they hit the crowd and Beca, a little annoyed, started off in the opposite direction.

Clearly that was going to be a fun situation.

Whatever.

 

They were taking her to dinner? This was so weird.

They were going to be nice?

That had been nice - for them. Awkward yeah, but nice. 

It was making her head swim.

She didn’t get it.

But it was kind of...cool…

Except, as she wandered through the crowd she found herself wondering, what would this be like if Red were here?

She knew that she was headed for great new friends or whatever but she couldn’t help but to miss her old friend.

She meandered through a few booths, not really paying a lot of attention as much as just wandering.

When would it happen?

Would she even notice when everything started to change like Red had hinted?

She wished she could just call her. She wished,

“Hi.”

Beca jumped, glancing around. She hadn’t noticed how close she had gotten to the line of booths, or that she was suddenly in talking-to range. She turned and suddenly stopped dead, her jaw falling open.

“Any interest in joining our a capella group?”

 

* * *

 

Nine… ** _nine!_** Nine whole freaking months later

 

    “Shhhhh! You’re going to wake up the whole house,” Chloe’s huge eyes sparkled as she pulled Beca along, “and Aubrey _totally_ flips when anyone wakes her up in the middle of the night.”

Beca let out a rude snort, perhaps overcompensating with sarcasm so that it wasn’t clear just how tickled she was right now. “This is me shocked.” She gave Chloe a blank stare which cracked the moment that Chloe giggled into her free hand. She loved it! She loved it far too much and she suddenly felt the strange want to do something, literally anything, to keep Chloe laughing. She could stand on her head – or – she didn’t know, do a tap dance. It didn’t matter. She would do anything at all.

This was why Chloe was so addictive, Beca knew it, one laugh, one smile and you were willing to master any feat just to get another one.

Clearly it was going to be the same with Chloe’s kisses too. She had only had one, well one kind of long one and already she was pretty sure she was willing to go back out front and try and lift Aubrey’s car with her bare hands if it meant she could have another one.

“Hey!” Chloe hissed a moment too late, clearly having forgotten she was supposed to defend her best friend from Beca’s sarcasm. She gave the hand that was interlocked with her own a little threatening squeeze, “ _Be nice_.” But as she said it Chloe’s eyes trailed from Beca’s to her lips like a caress, looking at Beca like she was her world and so, Beca wasn’t too concerned with the scolding.

Beca just gave her a dry salute as a silent promise not to make fun of Aubrey anymore - which neither of them believed. She wanted to come up with something sarcastic to say or at least something witty, you know, witty and daringly charming, but she couldn’t think of anything. Her lips were still a little dry from the way that Chloe had assaulted them on the cab ride back to campus and that was all she could think about. Well, that and what would happen once they got on the other side of Chloe’s bedroom door.

That thought was making her hot through the cheeks as well as a little nervous.

This was a first date. What was she _supposed_ to expect? Should she have worn sexy underwear instead of the black cotton pair she was wearing? Or like, maybe it was smarter to insist on taking it slow and just hang out and talk? Did women sneak you past their dictator of a captain to talk? Especially when said dictator had been really nice for like five minutes post I.C.C.A’s and then had gone back to being a panicked jerk because she was graduating?

She didn’t really know and she wished there was a way of asking that didn’t sound like ‘so am I about to see you naked? Because it would be really great if I am’.

Chloe glanced back at her again as she pulled her through the dark hallway of the Bellas house and up the stairs.

Beca let out a little squeak as she nearly tripped in the darkness, but before she could hit the floor Chloe gave her a yank. Beca just fell against the wall, her heart in her throat - something that only got worse when, to muffle her own laughter, Chloe pressed into Beca, burying her face in her throat.

Beca’s eyes slowly rolled heavenward, silently mouthing an exaggerated, ‘ _oh my god_ as she felt Chloe’s whole body against hers for the first time.

This was the way to go.

Clearly.

Best friends - which they had become very quickly since their friendship had begun with nudity – best friends turned...whatever they were. This was awesome.

She grinned a little and wrapped her arms around Chloe, squeezing her just because she could now; not that she couldn’t before.

She felt more than saw Chloe notice their positioning. She felt Chloe’s hands wrapped in either side of Beca’s lapel, pulling her into her so she could hide and she must have liked it as much as Beca did because suddenly she was placing opened mouth kisses on Beca’s throat.

Beca’s reaction was fast after nine months of pent up secret desire. Her fingers snaked through her hair, holding her closer, pulling her head up so she could reach for another kiss. She felt Chloe give a shutter and that was too much for Beca to deal with. She pushed her backward so that she was pressed into the banister, nearly tripping on the stairs again in her haste.

This was awesome.

She didn’t know exactly why Chloe was taking her to her room or what to expect but she had a feeling that no matter what the answer was, she was about to get so much more.

“I’m so glad we’re doing this, Bec,” Chloe whispered, kissing her face. “This is making me really happy.”

“Mmmm,” was all Beca answered, catching her full lips again like someone who was starving.

 

It had taken Beca the entire school year to ask Chloe out; a _full_ freaking year. And yeah, there had been a few complications. Chloe had already had a boyfriend when they met and they hadn’t broken up until just before their last performance.

But really, if Beca were being honest, her hesitation had been about one thing only.

Red.

She still really missed her. How could she not when everything that Red had said was coming true? Her life was _so_ weird now. She still wasn’t sure how the hell a capella was a real _thing_ for her now. And she was pretty sure that the girls were crazy for asking her to take over as captain after the summer break but still...life was awesome. 

And Red...none of it would have happened without her. Red had basically warned her about everything.

Even Chloe.

And Chloe… If Red had been amazing then Chloe… _wow_ …then it was like Red had been her slightly _less_ counterpart. Chloe somehow laughed harder, sang brighter, danced more...was more….everything. She was more _everything_ to Beca.

But the thing that had really gotten her and had kept Beca from just asking Chloe out once she knew she wanted to was Red’s _appearance_.

Once she had gotten over her shock at seeing Chloe that first day at the fair she had laughed herself; probably making Chloe think that Beca was a total psycho.

Beca had her theories about _why_ , as it had turned out, Red had looked like Chloe. Most of them were so hopeful and so fragile that she never wanted to say them out loud, fuck, she didn’t even want to _think_ them too openly just in case they were true…or worse they weren’t.

And while she wasn’t sure that she was right about the theories, she had known that whatever the reason for Red’s look it was probably _significant_ and _purposeful_ ; like change my life forever kind of significant. That fact had scared her enough to keep her romantically clear of Chloe for as long as she could manage it.

Okay so maybe she had been a little afraid too. On this side of things she was willing to admit that.

She regretted her hesitation now though.

 

Beca had _finally_ asked Chloe out the week that she had realized she was now totally and completely unable to hide the fact that Chloe weirdly made her slightly sour and grumpy heart sing.

Chloe had beamed after Beca had done it. She had smiled at her in that special way that only Chloe could do and had launched herself at her, kissing her before Beca had known what was happening as though she didn’t care at all that they had been standing in the middle of the quad. Which… she probably didn’t.

Chloe then proceeded to give her a huge hug, promise that she would call her after class and had skipped off with a huge grin on her face as though Beca had just made her world a better place.

Beca had watched her go until she had disappeared into the arts building, her heart doing its own little dance.

 _Chloe._ She had a date with _Chloe._

_Finally._

She hadn’t known that her heart could feel this full. She hadn’t known that she could feel that hazy and yet totally love it.

Chloe had just kissed her.

Beca remembered thinking to herself in that moment ‘this is good. This is a good thing’ before, grinning, she turned to leave. She had decided in that moment that whatever reason that Red had looked like Chloe...it didn’t matter...Beca was willing to dive in head first. She was willing to embrace her hopes that _maybe_ she had already met the super hot future wife that Red had been talking about…

She had pulled on her headphones and, she didn’t know why, but she looked up. No one had called her name and yet she had looked up as though someone had. Beca had been so dizzy with post-Chloe giddiness, so totally stupid happy that at first she thought she had been seeing things.  There, maybe ten yards away and standing under the shade of a tree had been Red.

She had been _sure_ of it. Chloe had only just disappeared in the opposite direction and somehow, she couldn’t place it, but she looked different than Chloe; somehow less real, more like a figment.

Beca had frozen in place, her eyes trained on her in disbelief. What did that mean? But as she had stared Red’s arms had crossed in an entirely self-satisfied kind of way and with a wink, Red had smiled at her. Beca had just laughed, looking away for a second to gain her bearings and then when she had looked up the spot was empty.

And that had been okay.

She wasn’t going to see Red again. She was sure of that. But Red, in her own way, had let her know that she was _finally_ on the right path.

 

 

“Can I take you to my bedroom?” Chloe asked, her lips only separating from Beca’s enough to whisper.

“Isn’t that where were we're going?” Beca asked, her voice cracking.

“Mmm.” Chloe grinned and gave Beca’s bottom lip a lick, turning Beca into mush. “But sooner rather than later, maybe? The banister is starting to hurt my back.”

“Oh shit!” Beca cried, a little too loud, her hand, which had somehow ended up under Chloe’s shirt, moved to the spot that was pressed against the wood.

“Shhh.” Chloe’s hand closed on her mouth and laughing, she turned and started to pull her the rest of the way up the stairs.

“‘Kay,” was all Beca said in response.

“This one is mine.” Chloe grinned, pushing open the door, “Up there,” she pointed toward the stairs, “will be yours when you move in.”

“Great.” Beca grinned, not all of that focused on that right now; not when Chloe had a finger hooked under the belt that she was pulling Beca by.

“Great.” Chloe grinned and then she was dragging her in and all but throwing her across the bed.

Beca let out a laugh, yelping, “Jesus, with the freaking manhandling!”

“You know you like it.”

Beca just laughed because yeah she did.

“Shhhh! I don’t want to get interrupted.” The gingery woman hissed, kicking off her shoes and climbing over Beca, her mouth on hers before she had even settled.

“Interrupted?” Beca got out between kissed, “Interrupting _what_ exactly?”

“Oh god, I love the way you kiss.” Chloe just whimpered, pressing herself into Beca, wrapping her arms and legs around her.

“Hmmm, just wait,” Beca mumbled and carefully flipped them so Chloe was on her back. She worked carefully but purposely, the way you pick at threads of stitching you want to remove; a lick here, a nibble there. She felt Chloe’s hands settle on her shoulders as Beca’s hand went to the thigh of the leg which was still tight around her. Slowly and deliberately her lips turned gentle, whispering over Chloe’s, tenderly sucking on her bottom lip, rolling with her tongue. Chloe let out a gasp and her hands slipped from Beca’s shoulders to the back of her neck and then down her back, her fingers clawing at her. Beca grinned and without thinking, simply wanting more, she dipped down and carefully sucked on that spot, that little spot just below and to the side of her bottom lip.

Chloe’s reaction was a strong one. Her mouth popped open and she let out a small delicate little, “ _Oooh!_ ”

Beca smirked, her grip on Chloe’s thigh tightening as she did it again, loving the reaction and then just for good measure she did it again...you know...for science.

Suddenly she was on her back, Chloe’s flushed face hovering just over hers, “You know what is a huge turn on for me?”

Beca smirked and leaning up caught her lip and gave the spot just below her lip a gentle bite.

Chloe’s eyes rolled back and with an almost reactionary shove, she slipped her hands under Beca’s shirt, her fingers kneading into her stomach. “How did you know?”

Beca just grinned, pushing Chloe back over. She chuckled, kissing her again before her hands started to move on Chloe, wanting to touch everything, to take every part of her in, “ _A friend taught me._ ”


End file.
